Lea Valdez
by Hermes's Least Favorite Child
Summary: Gender-Bender fic. Thanks to a prank by Connor and Travis, Leo is turned into a girl, Lea, christened by the prankers themselves. Although there is a cure, it will take perhaps a month. Come with Leo as he faces the difficulties of being a girl, finds an unlikely friend, survives adventures, and puts down the unwanted male attention. Cover is by Viria, the best artist ever!
1. I Get Renamed Lea

Connor and Travis Stoll **(who, by the way, I was devastated to learn were not twins)** grinned at each other mischievously. Connor hefted a glass bottle filled with blue-pink liquid in one hand.

"This is what happens when someone messes with our poker chips!" Travis whispered.

Connor laughed and chucked the glass bottle threw a newly crafted window as hard as he could. It exploded in a blue-pink cloud. Leo yelped.

And then there was another yelp, a yelp of a girl…

The brothers glanced at each other, surprised. Why was there a girl in Leo's Bunker? Could this be future blackmail information…?!

"Who's there?! Put it out!" the girl screamed. "I can't see! GAH! My eyes! GAH! Who put that hammer there! AHHHH!"

There was a sound of crashes and thuds as many metallic and heavy items clattered on the floor noisily. Then there was a comical sound of a yowling cat.

"GAH! WHAT IS A CAT DOING IN HERE?!"

A girl stumbled out of the Bunker, the colorful smoke drifting around her. She had shoulder-length curly brown hair, dark skin, brown eyes, and grease-smeared clothes.

"Leo never told us he had a twin sister," Connor said cautiously.

Travis blinked. "Yeah. She could totally be Leo if you trim the hair and, uh…edited out the curves."

"You don't think…?"

"Nah… could it?"

The girl whirled around, randomly. Her eyes were frantic. "Who's there? Who's going to answer to Super-Sized McShizzle!? And why is my voice so high?"

The brothers paled. They said in unison, "Oh, Hades."

"Was it a helium bomb? Very funny. TRAVIS! CONNOR! STOLLS! I do not appreciate this! And why do I feel…weird…" The girl looked down at herself.

She blinked once to signal does not compute, and then passed out.

* * *

**Leo's Point of View:**

I drifted into consciousness around the time I heard Connor and Travis talking to someone. Even before I opened my eyes, I could tell I was in the infirmary. The smell of crisp, laundered white sheets and ground pills. Yum.

Why was I here? Did I have an accident in Bunker 9? And then I remembered.

If you've never had a memory rush into your brain, I recommend you remember everything. Because something rushing into your brain does not feel good. At all. Believe me.

I shot up in bed and shrieked. Dang it, voice still as high a shrill screaming girl in a horror movie. I looked around, completely disoriented, until I saw a mirror near my bedside table.

I tried to snatch it up but Lou Ellen, a redheaded girl from the Hecate cabin, grabbed it. "No, no, you can't see your reflection yet. You might go into shock."

"Into shock?" I shrieked. I winced. "Oh, yeah, sure, knowing I've been transformed into the opposite gender will _really _seem little when I see my reflection."

"Look, Leo, I don't know—"

"How long do I have to stay like this?" I demanded first, because that was really the first thing I wanted to know. "What happened?"

"Idiot number 1 ad 2 over here," she said irritated, jerking her head in the direction of the Stools, "set off a gender-bender potion in your Bunker after they stole it from us."  
Connor said, "First of all, we asked if we could borrow it. So hardly stealing."

"I said no and then you booby trapped the part of the woods my cabin was exploring for the day so you could sneak in!" she blustered growing pink.

Travis shrugged. "Your fault for saying no."

"You two are impossible."

"How long am I going to stay like this?" I finally shouted. They all turned to me. "I-It's not going to be forever, right?"

"No, I can make a counter-acting potion," she said airily. "But I need wolfs bane soaked in the full moon, a bottle of ketchup, some salt, a pinch of cat fur, a pint of lake water, and at least three weeks for it to ferment. So you'll stay like this for a month."

I suddenly sat back and began bawling. Odd, I never bawled before. Must have been the female hormones, I don't know. "I-I-I want my old body b-back!"

"Okay, look, I have to get cracking with the potion, so you guys comfort her—I mean him! Gosh, so confusing," Lou Ellen said rolling her eyes. She flounced from the room. Then she flounced back, shoved the mirror into Travis's arms, and said, "Give it to him when he calms down." And then flounced back out.

"So…" Connor said uncomfortably. "How's life?"

I grew so ticked by that sentence that I jumped out of bed and grabbed Connor by the shoulders, shaking him roughly. Wow, so is this what they call the bite of a female? Not bad at all. "How's my life? How's my life?! Why don't you guess, dog face?!"

"I'm guessing not well?" Travis said with a nervous laugh.

"Oh, congratulations, completely genius!" I screamed hysterically, and then buried under the covers, crying again.

They urgently whispered over my head but I couldn't hear. They were obviously just as at a loss as I was, if not more. But I didn't care. Crying felt good. But hey, if the guys call me a girl for crying, I'll have an excuse! **(I know that is very sexist, but don't worry, I'm a girl, I get it. It's just a thing I feel like Leo will think. Just wanted to clear all that out.) **

"Look, Lea," Connor began.

I threw my covers up and glared up at him. "Lea? My name is Leo!"

Travis said, "Well, yeah, but it's kind of weird calling you that when you're a girl, so Connor and I made a girl's name for you. Lea, you like it?"

I chucked a pillow at him. "No, I do not like it, my name is Leo, my name is Leo!"

Then I jumped out of the bed and ran away. I threw the doors open and sprinted out when I slammed into Percy Jackson. He yelled in surprise and then grabbed me when I reeled back, about to fall.

"You okay?" he asked me. "Hey, I haven't seen you around camp. What's your name?"

"MY NAME IS LEO!" I screamed and kicked the shins of the son of Poseidon and then ran away, sobbing madly, to bump into another person.

Who, unfortunately, happened to be Jason. He exclaimed, "Hey!" as I toppled backwards on my rump.

He leaned down and squinted. "Wait a second. Leo?"

I wailed and then hugged his leg, completely broken. I just nodded over and over again.

"Let go, Leo, you're making everyone stare!" Jason whispered urgently.

I let go and then wobbled to my feet, wiping my tears and face. "S-s-sorry, man, I'm just really at a loss. Where's Pipes?"

"Aphrodite cabin," Jason said, pointing. "Leo, wait a second, why are you a—"

But I was already taking off. I threw the Aphrodite cabin door and waited for Drew's slipper to catch me in the jaw as it normally does whenever I walk into the Aphrodite cabin without knocking, but for some reason, it never came.

Huh.

And then I realized the girls were in their bathing suits, ready to go out to the lake, and then I yelped like someone had put an ice cube down my pants and threw myself back, toppling into the rows of petunias outside.

"Who're you?" Lacy asked curiously, leaning over me in her Hello Kitty swim suit. "Are you the newest Aphrodite kid?"

I screeched. Gods of Olympus, no! Then I rolled out of the flower bed and stood back up. A crowd of girls were looking at me, perplexed. Then I spotted Piper.

I launched myself at my sister and began sobbing again into her shoulder. Dang hormones. "B-B-Beauty Queen! Help me!"

"Who are you? Beauty Queen? Only Leo calls me…" she stopped, grabbed my head, and pulled me away. She squinted, and then let go of me hastily. "Oh my gods, Leo?!"

At the sound of my name, Drew didn't even think, she just grabbed her flip flop off of her foot and launched it at me. It hit me in the jaw. Ah, that finally felt normal at least. I lay on the ground, grinning like a maniac until I remembered that I was in huge trouble. I sat up and pouted.

"Aphrodite's doves, it is you, Leo!" she gasped and leaned down. "Your hair, your face…what happened?"

"Connor and Travis did magic voodoo on me and turned me into a girl!" I snarled as I stood up and gestured at my body. "Look at me!"

"I'm actually trying really hard not to, because I'm kinda torn in between from laughing until I die or puke until I have no more stomach," she admitted. "How long is this going to last?"

"A month," I said miserable.

"A mon—" she paused and turned slightly pink. So did all the girls. "Uh, Lacy, can you get all these guys to the lake? I'll come in a minute. Or a few. Actually, I might not be able to go today. You have senior counselor duty."

"Me? But I'm only—"

"I really don't trust anyone else with the duty," Piper said, glaring at Drew who was retrieving her Michael Khorr's sandal. "Go on."  
She nodded and skipped down the lane, glowing with happiness that she was entrusted with an important job like this.

"Now Leo, come on in," Piper said with a sigh. "Give me a second to change."

I grinned impishly. "Technically speaking, since I'm a girl, you can just change—"

"Shut up, Leo that is not funny!" she called from the bathrooms. I sat on her bed, swinging my legs, and felt my face. I still didn't know how I looked like, exactly. My face felt pretty much the same, except my nose was slightly smaller and my lashed were a bit longer.

Oh, and my hair was longer too. Up to my shoulders.

"Leo," Piper said as she came back in. She took in a deep breath and sat next to me. "For a full month?"

"Uh-huh."

"Schist. Okay, look. In the next two hours, I am going to fill you in on everything you need to know for a month. Have you ever taken health class?"

"Yes."

"What did you learn in health class?"

"That girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice—"

"Leo!"

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, fine, I learned about the food pyramid and useless stuff like that."

Piper took in a deep breath. "Every month, a female like you goes through a cycle. Actually, you know what? I can't do this. Let me go get the tape."

"The tape?"

"We've had to explain this to more girls than just you, Leo."


	2. I Develop a Female Mindset

**Two updates in one day! I'm on fire! Hope y'all like it.**

**-Sherry Pincher**

* * *

NEVER. WATCH. THE TAPE.

My eyeballs were tainted. I would probably have to shove my face in a pot of boiling Lethe to forget what I saw.

"You guys go through that every month like a werewolf?" I said, trembling. I had puked in the middle of it. "Oh my gods, Beauty Queen, I am so sorry."

"Really Leo? In that condition, you're saying sorry to _me_?" Piper said, laughing. She shook her head and then became serious again. "Look, I get you feel really awkward. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Talk about it? What am I, a g…?" I dejectedly put my head in my hands and sighed. Very deeply. "Yes. Yes I am. Beauty Queen, I am _really _confused right now. If the guys see me like this, I will _never _hear the end of it. I'm probably going to become like my dad, living amongst inanimate objects until someone forces another person to marry me."

"Leo, I know this is really not the time, but you shouldn't be _that _upset," Piper said slowly.

"And why's that?" I asked, looking up. "What silver lining is there in the dark and gloomy cloud of terribleness that is my life so far that isn't strangling the Stolls?"

"Well, you could have been an ugly girl," Piper said, lips in a tight white line that showed how hard she was trying not to smile. "Fact is Leo, have you seen a mirror yet?"  
"No," I grumbled.

She reached for one that was lying two feet away. The mirrors in the Aphrodite cabin were enough to fully stock a mirror maze, so no problem. She handed it to me and I took in a deep breath before looking inside.

Mother of all mechanical dragons. I looked kinda like me, save for the fact my hair was everywhere, my lashes were longer, and my nose was kinda pointier. Yup, I was now Latino Santa's female elf. Whoopee.

"You are so cute!" she squealed.

"I hate being a demigod sometimes," I growled, and set the thing down.

"Also, Leo," Piper said very hesitantly. "You, uh, need to know something about clothes."

"What?"

"Well, you may or may not have noticed that your body has gone through some changes, as the tape had said."

"NEVER MENTION THE TAPE!" I hollered.

"Okay, fine." Piper rolled her eyes and went to a bureau. "Luckily, your body isn't that developed. Maybe it's because you just became a female, maybe it's just you, I don't know. But you have to wear some under clothes."

My heart sank even lower. "You have got to be kidding me."

She shrugged and took out a white sports bra. "At least it's a kid's bra. If you were wearing a padded one, well, you would be even more upset."

"No, I am not going to wear that," I said bluntly. I blew a lock of hair out of my face. "I don't care if I get arrested I am _not _going to wear that! And yes, it's partially because I don't want to undress and see my 'female body.'"

"Why did you make air quotation marks?" Piper asked.

I glared. "Because if I make quotation marks whenever I say 'female body,' it may appear that I am implying something else even if I'm not!" I swept my hair back with a hand. "And how do you guys manage to deal with all this hair?"

"Here, let me braid it back for you," she said, grabbing a ribbon and a brush. "Do you want any accessories to go in it? I can—"

"No, no way, I don't think so, uh-uh!" I rambled. I looked around a grabbed the closest thing, an olive green rag. I tied my hair back like a bandana. "There. I'm good, see?"  
"If you're going to be feminine for a month, I think you should at least embrace it," Piper said flatly, throwing the hair tamers aside. "So what do you want to do now? You can't go out without wearing proper attire."

"Like?"

She glanced at the sports bra she had put on the comforter. I shook my head. She smiled sympathetically but nodded her head nonetheless. "Look, if it bothers you that much, I can help you."  
I grew red. "H-Help me? 'Scuse me?"

"Leo, I'm not that foreign to the female body as you might be, and anyhow, and you're fine with taking your shirt off, you did it yesterday in the forge when I visited," Piper said, crossing her arms.

I hesitated and then sighed. "Okay, fine, coming out with it. I feel a bit uncomfortable taking it off for some reason. It's really awkward right now for me."

Piper closed her eyes and thought. Then she opened them and clapped her hands. "Of course, Leo, you not only have a female body now, but you're beginning to develop a slightly female mindset!" She looked as though this was something I was to be congratulated about.

"No thank you!" I howled. "You know what? I'll just change blind folded!" I picked the defending article of female clothing by one strap using two fingernails like it was a keg of dynamite, ready to blow a hole through the roof.

I tugged the olive green rag over my eyes and felt my way to the bathroom, walking into a wall once or twice, and then huffed defiantly when Piper laughed. "I'm okay, thanks for caring!"

Then I found the privacy of a cubicle and then screwed my eyes shut even though I had on a blind fold, slipped the t-shirt over my head, threw on the sports bra, and slipped back into the shirt in what I think was record time. I victoriously smiled and walked out.

Piper took one look at me and burst out laughing. She wiped a tear. "Go back in, Leo, you've worn it backwards."

No wonder I've felt uncomfortable. "Ah, schist," I growled.

* * *

"So, here we are, the Hephaestus bunk," Piper said. "Why are we here?"

"Because I have to get a pair of overalls, the only unisex thing besides t-shirts and jeans a girl can wear but I can't wear jeans because they don't fit right because for some reason my hips are slightly bigger!" I said, ranting. "So just stay out here and scare away any person who comes."

"Scare away—who am I, Annabeth? Clarisse?" she spluttered, but I was already inside.

I snatched a pair of overalls up and slipped inside of them, putting the straps over my shoulder. I hooked my tool belt on and stood in front of the one full-length mirror we have in the Hephaestus cabin. There, looked almost normal save for my face and the fact I was standing with my hip out. I righted my posture, annoyed.

"You done?" Piper called.

"Almost!" I called back. I went to the work table, grabbed an oil can, and generously applied to my cheeks and clothes. Messy. No girl would be able to do it if she wasn't a Hephaestus one. I thanked dad for my lineage. "Coming!"

I walked to the door and walked out. Piper saw me and grinned. "Oil. Nice, it's a good touch."

"Thank you," I said grandly, bowing. "I'm here every Mondays and Fridays. Who knows maybe your sisters might let me do my magic!"

"Dream on, repair boy. Well, repair girl now," she said with a smirk.

"Beauty Queen, I am not laughing which shows that that is not funny. At all," I retorted as I ran on ahead. "I'll be—"

And that's when I ran into the third boy that day. I squeaked as I fell back and gracefully hit the back of my head on a rock. I rubbed my head, eyes crossed as I tried to focus on one thing because my vision was doubling.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked someone.

"Yeah, perfectly spiffy," I said sarcastically and looked up.

And choked on air.

It was Will, Will Solace from the Apollo cabin. He smiled nervously in a really cute way and grabbed my hand to help me up. The sun bounced off of his blonde curls, turning it golden like butterscotch. His tall, lean body had a strap, a quiver. In his other hand was an arrow.

"Sorry about that," he apologized. He squinted. "Hey, I feel like I've seen you before around here."

Piper jumped in, "Yeah, he's—"

"I'm new," I said, interrupting her. I giggled and offered a hand to shake. "My name's…Lea. Nice to meet you."  
"Lea?" he asked, brow furrowing. "Wow, I swear I've seen you before. Huh, déjà vu."

"Yeah, totally, me too," I said dumbly, giggling. "Maybe we can see each other again some other time, Will."  
Piper looked from me to Will and back again like a million times. A huge smile began to grow on her face. Dang, I forgot her Aphrodite love senses. Stupid demigods' capabilities. Will nodded and waved goodbye after heading another way, shaking his head like he was still trying to remember where he's seen me before.

"Lea? Really, Leo?" Piper asked, trying to smother a giggle. "What were you thinking? Are you going to psyche Will later?"

I shook my head, confused. What did I just do five minutes ago? "When did Will Solace receive the blessing of Aphrodite?"

Piper took in a deep, calming breath through her nose and put her hands on my shoulders, turning me around. "Leo, tell me what you see."

I shrugged. "Some girls. Mason, Malcolm, Percy, I _think _that's Jonathon, but he's kinda far away."

She turned me around to face her again and she was grinning like the Town Fool. "_Lea_, I think I know what just happened. Yesterday, if I had asked you this, you would have gone, 'oh, some guys, and some _fine _looking dryads that I'd definitely recycle for.' Now look at you! You really are developing into a female mindset."

"No I'm not!" I screeched. Heads turned. I blushed and lowered my voice. "Look, Pipes—"

"See?" Piper said dramatically. "You never cared what others thought about you, you would have gone on ranting even if a few heads turned and then burst into fire for dramatic effect. But now you're kinda self-conscious, which every girl is on the inside."

"Shush!" I whispered frantically. "What I mean is…can you please keep the fact that I'm Leo a secret? I'll pretend I'm a girl named Lea, and that'll reduce the teasing to a minimum. The only other approach is to lock myself in the Leo Cave under the Hephaestus cabin for a month like some kind of hermit until Lou Ellen gets a cure."

"Fine," Piper said with a grin. Then she frowned. "But how can we disguise the fact that you act and look almost _exactly _like Leo? I mean, Will's an idiot, but to someone like Annabeth…"  
"I'm Leo's long lost twin who was separated at birth, I know everything about him because we're twins, I act like him, only slightly more girly," I said proudly. "Not practical, but makes much more sense than the truth."

"Looks like turning into a girl gave you a touch of common sense."

"Yes, yes it did."

Piper laughed. "I've always wanted to have a younger sister that I can actually relate to, unlike the Aphrodite cabin. Now I've got one!"

"We're the same age."  
"Yes, but you're much shorter than me," she said, rolling her eyes. "Who else knows about your little transformation mishap?"

"I yelled at Percy and Jason, but if we pull this act together really well, we can change their memory slightly," I decided. "Connor and Travis know. So do Lou Ellen. And your siblings might get a bit gossipy which is never a good thing."

"I can deal with that if I distract them with a new pair of shoes," she said dismissively. "I can threaten the Stolls into silence no problem if I pull a Drew, Lou Ellen's not too social enough to rant, and the Jason and Percy memory tweaking idea isn't too bad. Let's do this."

"First, I'm really hungry," I said. The sun was beginning to set and I had no lunch. No girl, or boy for that matter, can digest this much information without the help of some calories.

As if I was the god of luck, the dinner bell clang loudly that exact minute.

"Perfect time to introduce you to people," Piper said sarcastically. "Come on, Lea Valdez, I'll show you around camp."


	3. Connor Asks Me Out

When they entered the dining pavilion, the talk almost stopped immediately. They all turned their heads. I leaned over to Beauty Queen and muttered, "See, this is why we shouldn't have stopped by your cabin to wipe off the machine oil!"

"You looked too much like a Hephaestus kid like that," she hissed back. "You're supposed to be new."

Connor laughed and said, "Hey, Le—"

Piper grabbed a plate and tossed it like a Frisbee. It flew through the air and whammed Connor upside the head. He fell off of the bench, moaning.

"Oops, sorry, my hand slipped!" she said cheerfully, smiling. But Travis knew to shut his mouth. "So, this is a new demigod, guys! Lea."

"Whoa, hold up," Annabeth said, standing up. She assessed the situation with stormy gray eyes. "Lea? You have got to be kidding me. Who put a wig on Leo?"

"No, she really is Lea," Piper said, putting a little bit of charmspeak into her voice. "Now don't you want to sit down and enjoy your spaghetti or something, Annabeth?"

"I-I want to enjoy my spaghetti," Annabeth echoed, gray eyes fuzzing over. Then she glared. "Really, Piper? Now I _know _something's up."

I looked around and saw everyone _staring _at me and blushed before inching my way behind Piper. "It's really embarrassing if you all stare like that, you know."

Everybody instantly looked away because who knows common courtesy better than most maniac, monster-killing sadistic demigods, right?! Everyone, that is, except Percy, Annabeth, Jason, and some of the Aphrodite cabin. And Travis and Connor were just one step behind reaching for some cameras to get all this on tape.

"Hey, you ran into me from the infirmary," Percy said, eyebrows furrowed like the seaweed brain he is. But man, I never noticed his sparkly green eyes. STOP IT, LEA! "You screamed your name was Leo."

"I screamed my name was Lea," I deadpanned. "Think about it. Remember? Why would I say my name was Leo?"

"Uh…" Thank gods Percy was a seaweed brain, I wasn't sure if Annabeth would have been convinced if I had run into her at any point of the day. "Yeah. Maybe…?"

Jason frowned. "But you ran into me too, and you were totally Leo, I know it."

I feigned ignorance. "Um. I really don't remember doing that today. But I know the reason I look like him…"

Everybody drew in closer and I blushed. "I…I think I may be his twin sister."

The entire dining pavilion nearly had its roof blown off. Connor and Travis were falling off of each other laughing like there was no tomorrow, Annabeth's eyes were bulging, Jason was spluttering, Percy was blinking like, "What's going on?" And almost everybody else in the room was squawking, "What? What?"

"Since when did Leo have a twin sister?" Annabeth demanded.

I looked down, really not wanting to make eye contact. I hope I conveyed innocence. "I-I didn't know until recently either. Piper was showing me around, and I saw a picture of him… I mean, I always knew I had a lost twin brother but—"

"Tell me everything," Jason said roughly.

Piper nudged me and looked at me with wide eyes and a drooped lower lip and I got the message. I fell to my knees and began crying loudly. I certainly had a lot to cry about. I kept on repeating in my head _think of the end of Fault in Our Stars, think of the end of Fault in Our Stars, _and the waterworks didn't rust over a bit.

"Gods, Jason, you made her cry!" Piper yelled. "Look, you of all people should know, she's not very comfortable in telling her past because it obviously doesn't have many happy perks in it. Can you please lay off of her fore a bit?"

"Yeah, yeah, sorry," he said quickly. "I'm just kinda confused. I don't think Leo has a twin sister."

"Oh, so what do you t-t-think happened," I choked out from under my tears. Maybe I should sign up to be an actor in the Apollo cabin's annual play. "Leo just h-happened to change into a girl like that?" I snapped my fingers.

Connor began laughing loudly but Piper threw another plate. Luckily, no one noticed. "And I j-just learned my brother was off somewhere on an expedition or something and won't be back for a m-month."

"What?" Percy said, stricken. "Leo never told us he was going on a solo quest."  
Piper shrugged. "He told me. It's something about getting the proper parts for Festus."

That sounded very believable. _Like she's a dang daughter of Hermes than Aphrodite_, I thought. "I'm hungry. I battled my way through a crowd of vampire flame-haired girls with nothing but a really sharp fork and a pair of scissors, so if you don't mind, I want to _eat!_"

I plopped myself down at the Hephaestus table and stabbed Nyssa's hamburger before biting into it. She just stared at me with narrowed eyes. "Well, you certainly eat like Leo."

Say something funny, I thought. I opened my mouth but Piper shook her head and mimed yelling. So I yelled, "Got a problem with that, little Miss Suspicious? You try eating like the queen of England when you're starving." before biting into the burger again.

"She's tense," Piper said hurriedly. "Well, let's all give Lea some space to eat and rest before we interrogate her anymore." She threw a glance at Jason who nodded.

Connor moved his seat, much to his brother's shock, next to me. Piper grabbed another plate but he ducked and said, "Yeesh, violent one! How many times are you going to use dish ware as weaponry against me? I just wanna sit next to Lea."  
Piper scowled before putting the plate down warily. But I noticed she didn't relinquish her hold and sat as close to me and Connor as she could. Personally, I was surprised that he would break the rules for this. Didn't he like dessert?

"Why're you here?" I muttered from the side of my mouth. I took a sip of coke.

"I just wanted to know if you wanna go on a date with me next Friday," he murmured back with a mischievous grin on his face.

I spat out my coke all over Nyssa who glared at me before grabbing a paper towel and wiping off the sticky brown liquid. Luckily, Hephaestus kids are used to various forms of sticky liquid being sprayed everywhere.

"If this is a joke, Stoll, Just know that it is definitely _not _funny," I growled. "You and your equally if not more annoying brother know the truth so just sit there and eat your disgusting brisket."

"Aw, come on, _Lea,_" he said with a smirk. "If you really want to convince people you're a girl, and by the way, not doing a very good job, you have to act like one. Therefore, I will help you."

"Sleep with one eye open, Stoll," I snarled and took out a little saw from my tool belt, driving it like a tiny border between me and him. "And then go die in a hole."

"Well, someone is cranky," he said, still grinning like an idiot. "Come on, Lea. Please?"

"We, technically speaking, don't even know each other!" I blustered. "Going out with you right now would be even more suspicious, like I somehow know you."

"Then Friday it is!" he said brightly, and stood up to sit back next to his brother.

"What the—" I moaned and put my head on the table. Why was my life so difficult?


	4. I Get a GIft From Daddy

I climbed into my bed, exhausted. Nyssa stopped me. "Wait, Lea, that's Leo's bed."

I moaned. I really liked this bed too. "I'm sure he won't mind too much if his long lost twin sister crashed one night on his bed. Please?"

She frowned. "Um…I _guess _that'll be okay. You know, being his _sister _and all." But Nyssa's gaze wasn't very believing. "Do you have any pajamas?"

"I'm just fine crashing as it is," I said, and then face-planted on the mattress.

I was snoring like Clovis before long. But of course, snoring means sleeping, sleeping means dreams, dreams means not good. Isn't being a demigod just lovely?

* * *

"Hello? Is this thing working?" said a gruff voice. I knew who it was almost immediately.

"Dad?" I said in disbelief. "Another dream connection?"

He looked up from the World War I Dream Connection machine and his face broke out into an amused grin like someone had cracked his face of scars and bee stings. "Wow. Hermes was right, you really did turn into a…"

I crossed my arms and stuck out a hip with one lip pouting. "Really, Daddy? You know, being a girl isn't too bad. I mean, I'll turn back into Leo any day, but I'm going to live this up while I can. But you wouldn't know. How did Hermes even find out anyway?"

"Well…" Hermes didn't meet my eye and fiddled with some pistons and gears on his lap nervously. Whatever was coming out of his lips next would be a lie. "He _is _the god of lies, and he knows all lies…"

"And Connor and Travis told him via Iris Message for some money," I said flatly.

"Yes, that too."

"I am going to _kick _Connor's butt on Friday!" I yelled. "Anyways, why did you call me? Besides telling me the _incredible _fact that I am a girl now which I didn't know."

His eyes went wide. "You didn't? Well, that's surprising, seeing as…" I raised an eyebrow. "Sarcasm, wasn't it? Well I just had to say it for myself. And, boy, uh, girl, I have to say…you look exactly like Esperanza."

I blinked and stayed there, dumb, but my mind was reeling. Of course, I didn't remind me of myself when I looked into that mirror, I reminded myself of Mom! Oh, gods… the hormones were rearing again.

"I, uh…" I blinked back some tears. "Thanks, Dad. So, what are you building now? Anything interesting?"

Hephaestus shrugged. "I heard that part of your lie was that you went searching for parts for that mechanical dragon of yours, and, well, when you turn back, you can't come empty-handed, so I'm giving you this."

He held out something in his palm. I picked it up and turned it over slowly, gazing at it in wonder. No way. "Is this a…control disk for Festus?"

"I had a bit of spare time and I never got to get you a gift for saving—" he never finished his sentence because I jumped the last three feet and flung my arms around his neck.

I kissed his flaming cheek (luckily I was still fire-proof) and whispered, "Thank you so much, Daddy," into his ear.

"Yes, well," was his only reply. Then he hugged me back and we stayed like that for a few seconds until I jumped off of him and smiled bashfully. "So…are you going to be going back to that camp of yours?"

"I think I'll be waking up sometime soon," I said with a nod. "Thank you, Dad, so much, you have no idea how much this…" I sniffled and wiped a tear from my eye. He looked stricken.

"What is it? Are you hurt? Are you sick? What did I do to make you sad? What is it?"

I laughed through my tears which were now streaming down my face with nothing to hold it back. "Nothing. Sometimes, organic life forms cry because t-they're so happy, Daddy."

Hephaestus sat back, looking stumped like I just gave him a really though riddle. "Huh. Never heard of that before. That's just downright odd."

Suddenly, the dream went all swirly. The Wheel of Fortune again, ugh. I carefully put the control disk in my overall's front pocket, and then placed a hand over it to make sure it was really and truly there.

I gave him a toothy smile as the dream fizzed gray one more time and said, "Looks like my time is done. And Lea is out!"

The dream blinked out like some kind of TV power outage.

* * *

"Lea!" Nyssa said as she shook my shoulder.

I sat up groggily and stretched my mouth in a yawn and smacked my lips, back slumped. Then I remembered what happened last night and patted my overall pocket. There was a lump in there. Could it be…?

"YES!" I screamed loudly. Nyssa yelped and toppled back like I shot a dart into her midsection. I suddenly thought, _I'm not supposed to know about Festus yet. Control yourself, Valdez. One month. One month and everything you've wanted will come true._

"What was that all about?" she said warily as she got back up.

"I, uh…" I looked around. Anything! Nyssa wasn't a blabber but she could act as well as I could sing, which is to say not well at all. "I just remembered that I have a date with Connor?"

Luckily, she was so shocked by the contents of that sentence that she didn't notice how my voice was very unconvincing. Anyone saying they were going out with a Stoll had that effect on people.

"You're WHAT?!" she shrieked. "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?"

Jake Mason moaned and fell out of his bed. "Stop the noise, you two. Save the girl talk for your slumber parties and chick flicks."

For some deranged reason, I was really ticked by that. What was up with boys and their stupid stereotypes? Never mind the fact I would have totally agreed with him 24 hours ago. I grabbed my pillow and chucked it at him as the same time as Nyssa and we both yelled, "SHUT UP, JAKE!"

Then we looked at each other and then burst out giggling. I changed into a fresh shirt and overalls, tugged on my socks and my Nikes, brushed my (annoying) hair and pulled it back in using the green rag, tied on my tool belt, and gave myself a once over before walking to lunch with Nyssa.

"Please explain to me what possessed you in those five minutes Stoll sat at our table to actually say yes to his offer," Nyssa said, wrinkling her nose as though we were discussing a new specimen of mold. Scratch that, the new specimen of mold would have been more appealing to her.

"I _didn't _say yes to his offer," I complained. "I was just super surprised and then he clapped his hands and said, 'great, see you on Friday."

"Really?" she said with a scoff and a roll of her eyes. "Boys are _so _immature."

"Tell me about it," I said. Wait a second, I was a boy! Hmm, this could be interesting. "Tell me about my brother?"

Nyssa thought for a second. "Well, he's a good builder, that's for sure. But he's almost as bad as a Stoll!"

_Excuse me_?

"I mean, he plays pranks all the time, he sometimes doesn't make a good fit to being a counselor of our bunk, he's lazy and annoying, and he doesn't seem to work well with others, always locking himself up in the bunker and hammering away all night until he comes in for dinner and then begins to annoy us again!"

"Fascinating," I said through gritted teeth. "Well, I'll be going now."

I stomped off to breakfast, miffed. Nyssa said, "Wait, what did I say? Lea?"


	5. I Schedule a Talk WIth the Ghost King

I sat down at the Hephaestus table with a plate of eggs, bacon, and toast. I dug in right away, starving/. Then Connor sat down right next to me.

My heart went _ka-bump._

_Shut up, heart_, I inwardly snarled, trying to keep the blood from rising to my cheeks. "Hey, Stoll."

"Aw, come on, Lea, shouldn't you be calling me by my first name?" he teased, poking me in the ribs. "We _are _technically going out now."

I poked him on the bridge of his nose so his eyes crossed and glared. "One date. And during the date, I'm planning on making you regret you were ever born, Stoll. And trust me, I'm going to ask Katie for her 'Stoll Brother Torturing Methods' list."  
He cringed. "Gods, the list? Why so ticked?"

"You told Hermes?!" I hollered. "If he tells Psyche, the goddess of gossip, I am done for."

"Nah, we made sure he would only tell your dad," he said dismissively and grabbed a strip of bacon from my plate. "So, where do you want to go on Friday?"

I wrinkled my nose. "Isn't the boy usually supposed to surprise the girl on the first date or something?"

"Yeah, but this is my first—" he paused. A grin grew on my face.

"Really, Stoll? You're going on your first day with a girl who hasn't been a girl for more than a week?" I said with a snort. "That's kinda lame, no offense."

"I'm asking you to go _because _you've only been a girl for less than a week," he retorted, blushing. "Low expectations on both sides of the party. Mutual dislike and awkwardness."

"Well, aren't you being smart for once," I sniffed and polished off the last of my toast, standing up abruptly. "I'm going to go now, if you have nothing better than to poke fun at my expense."

"You were a lot more fun when you were a boy," he said, complaining. "And what's up with the old timer's language?"

"I'm an old timer, fine!" I said annoyed. "At least I'm a dry old timer."

"What do you—" Then I dumped the rest of my orange juice on his head. "AHHH!"

The entire Demeter cabin and Ares cabin clapped as soon as they heard Connor make that strangled noise. Travis looked like someone had hit him on the back of his head with a sausage tray and I felt like it would be unfair to do one thing to one brother and not the other.

So I stomped over and grabbed his cup of apple cider and dumped it on his head too.

The entire dining pavilion cheered. I tossed my hair and walked right out of the dining pavilion after depositing my tray at the back.

"We're still meeting on Friday!" Connor called. "See you then, Lea!"

Everybody behind me screamed, "WHAT?!" My cheeks burned.

* * *

As soon as I walked out of the dining pavilion, I crashed into someone.

"Holy Hephaestus!" I yelled as I fell. "Why do I keep bumping into people?!"

The person I walked into grunted and fell back. I stood up quickly and offered him a hand, and then saw with a sinking feeling in my gut that it was Nico. "Hey, Death Breath, what are you doing here?"

He scowled and then he saw my face. "Valdez? Why are you a girl?"

As he would say, Styx. "Um, I'm Leo's twin sister, Lea. Nice to meet you."  
Nico raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Really? Huh, I never knew he had a twin sister. And if you are his twin sister, how come you just called me Death Breath?"

Sometimes, I think maybe I should fix a Leo-Zipper on my face. I grabbed him by the collar of his aviator jacket and drew him close to my face so we were nose-to-nose. "Don't you _dare _tell anyone. Unless you want to end up like the zombies you call from the ground."

I pushed him away roughly. He looked confused. "Well, something more than just your body's changed, obviously."

"No wonder you don't have a girlfriend," I yelled and then stomped away. He ran after me.

"Whoa, hold up," he said. "I'm still kinda confused as to what happened. I'm here to get my stuff so I can go away for good, but I can—"

"Go away? For good?" I said shocked. "What are you saying? Nico, you can't go away! We're all buddies, I thought we were all going to stick together after all that's happened!"

He turned cold, black eyes bitter. "No. I'm leaving. You don't know what's happened to me."

"Really?" I said squinting. "Look here, Death Boy, take a good look at me. My mom's died, I've been considered a freak, I've lived with the guilt of killing her for seven years, I've been torn into seven core parts of myself, and now I'm a girl!"

"I'd take that any day," he growled, turning.

The blood pounded in my ears as I grew red. "Yeah? You want to be emotionally wrecked and confused over whatever the Hades you're moping about? I'm being attracted to _boys, _Nico. You wouldn't get it."

And I don't know why, but as soon as I said that, he doubled over and being hacking. Then I noticed that it was harsh, coarse laughter. "Yeah, ha, ha, really funny."

"No, it's not that," he said, straightening. "Now I really wanna hear what's going on. Do you want to talk somewhere?"

"Bunker 9, the Leo Cave, or Cabin 13?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Cabin 13. I can pack while we talk."  
I hesitated. Then I decided I would go. Maybe I'd be able to find out more about the Happy Lord of the Dead and convince him to stay, even. After losing almost everybody precious to me, I wasn't going to let one of my friends be it.

* * *

**I'm not writing another Valdangelo fic after I got a lot of flames for the last time. Lea and Nico are just going to be really good friends, understanding each other. Capiche?**


	6. I Learn Happy Meals Are Bond Food

I took in a deep breath and walked right in. But even from the outside, Cabin 13's always made me feel like going up to it, knocking on the door, opening up a pillow case, and yelling, "TRICK-OR-TREAT!" if you know what I mean.

All black and ivory, obsidian and bone, eternally lit green torches, skulls here and there, and cobwebs, honest to goodness cobwebs. There were some screech owls painted outside. Now, I know owls were Athena's, but my tongue was kinda busy burying itself down my throat to ask.

Inside was even, if possible, _spookier._

Like, there was one bed. Not made of wood, no, that would have been _unstylish _to the son of the lord of death; it was made of human leg bones. I _really _hoped they weren't real. There were no speakers but there were loud screeches inside that made the back of my neck prickle. This is why the Hades cabin always got straight 4s when it was graded during cabin inspections, nobody bothers to go inside and actually check and so therefore just slaps the average score on the clipboard.

How do I know this? Because that is exactly what I have done in the past.

So, basically, saying the term, "I walked into the Hades cabin" was more or less equal to saying, "I just walked into a horror movie. With sound effects."

I think I might have been the fourth person to ever see the inside. Nico, who lives here, Annabeth, who built this place, and Hazel, who came to visit every now and then.

He grabbed a Pretty Pink Pony backpack—stupid, of course it was black! Man, you guys fall for anything.

Sorry, anyhow, he grabbed a raggedy old black backpack and threw in some old skull t-shirts, a pair of black skinny jeans, and some black boxers.

One look at those and my face shot one hundred degrees hotter. Like, my nose burst into flames. I patted it out, blushing like nuts and tried to discreetly turn around but he caught it and he sneered. What a jerk.

"You embarrassed of something like this now?" he drawled in that annoying voice of his. "Wow, you really are a girl. You probably fight like one too."

That did it. I turned around and jabbed a finger at his nose. "You know what? You probably could too, Nico, if you could fight a little better. Maybe you _should _go, so this camp can finally get rid of that death odor going by the name Nico Freaking di Angelo."

He smiled apologetically and sat down on his bed. "Sorry, I guess what I said was kinda out of line. I'm just a bit upset. So, are you going to talk?"

I sat down next to him, drew my knees closer and sighed. "Well, Stolls 1 and 2 were just doing the usual, being annoying. You know: the one talent they're good at? They steal some potion from the Hecate cabin, chuck it into Bunker 9 while I'm in there, turn me into a freaking girl, and then I suddenly have date with Connor!"

"Really?" Nico said with a grimace. "A date with a _Stoll_? Now I kinda think our lives are at a mutual terribleness now."

I nodded, flushed. I fanned myself and groaned, "Do you have anything I can drink? I'm kinda getting thirsty here."

He looked down and then suddenly disappeared. I stood up with a yelp. It was like the shadows suddenly got hungry and swallowed him up. And then he was _back_, with a red box in his hands.

Wow, a McDonald's Happy Meal. Huh, now there's something you don't see every day, and as a demigod, something _we_ don't see every day is extremely weird. He opened it up and passed me a coke. For himself, he extracted a burger.

"Can I have the toy?" I said randomly as I slurped my drink. He took out a tiny plastic dragon, I think Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon. "Yup, a dragon, that has my name on it. Cough it up, Skeleton Boy."

He rolled his eyes and tossed it over. I caught it with one hand, glanced at it, and then slipped it into my overall pocket with the control disk. A dragon and a dragon's control disk. Ha, all I needed was a golden egg from a Hungarian Horntail and this would really get ironic.

"So, you get these often?" I asked casually, trying to start a conversation.

He nibbled on the edge of the burger unhappily and said, "Sometimes, I eat them if the dead have some left over. I find it calming to eat."

It really just sort of creeped me out how he just tossed those sentences out there. Really? If the dead have some left over? I mean, I knew this kid spent a lot of his time in the underworld, but I never expected him to eat and chat with those things in his spare time.

Creepy.

"Why are you leaving?" I asked quietly, eyes trained on the skull-and-crossbones design on the black carpeting. Nico really paid attention to the interior design.

"Why does anybody leave?" he spat. "When they feel like there's nothing left for the other to offer. Either that or they're just snatched away unfairly, like life was jealous and thought that they offered too much. Just _gone_."

"Like they wanted to destroy everything and everyone worth saving the universe for, the thing that is holding you down to the Earth," I finished softly, settling the cup down on the ground. The ice in it rattled. "I know."

We sat there quietly for a while. Suddenly, he spoke up. "I have a confession."

"Confess away, Doctor Lea the quack psychologist is in the house," I joked. He didn't smile. "Sorry, inner Leo poking out. Anyway, what's up?"

He frowned and leaned into the corner, pressing his back to the bed post. "You're not the only person whose feeling confused as to who they like. Some of us…have been feeling it…forever."

I blinked and then Realization hefted a sledgehammer and crashed it on my head. "Oh…wow. Really? That's…wow, Nico."

"I know. I'm a freak, aren't I? Wrong, completely wrong, something the gods created by accident, unnatural, not right," he said angrily, standing up. "I'm leaving."

I leapt to my feet. "No, Nico, I'm sorry! I'm just so surprised you've actually trusted me with this information. Do you…do you think you can help me?"

"Help you?" he said sounding scandalized.

I nodded brightly. "Well, you've had experience, maybe you could help me get through this without—"

"You are disgusting, Valdez, and deserve to burn in the Fields of Punishment for the rest of your life," he hissed, and grabbed his backpack.

I grabbed his sleeve. "Nico, wait! Please!"

Suddenly, the hormones hit and I fell to the ground on my knees, a sobbing mess. I curled up into fetal position and made little screams of sadness. I was guessing every feeling a girl has in her entire lifetime, I would be lucky enough to feel _all _that in a month. Yay me.

"Whoa, you okay?" he asked leaning down nervously. He nudged me. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, fine, perfectly fine," I muttered standing up. I looked up at him with pleading eyes. "Please, Nico? Just stay, any one of my friends leaving will leave me an emotional wreck until I am lying down on the ground, craving ice cream and the Divergent books."

"That is the _girliest _thing I have ever heard anyone say, including all the girls in the world," he said with a disgusted shake of his head. "I can't—"

"Just for one month then!" I interrupted. "Come on. We're two wrong people, working together to conquer our confused emotions. It'll be one for the movies!"

He frowned and looked like he was going to argue but then he bit his lip again and then said, "Fine. But you tell anyone, and I will personally see to it that Charon shoves you off the boat into the River Styx when you die. Possibly _make _you die in the first place too."

"Well, aren't we the Happy Smiles Club," I grumbled. Then I smiled. "We work together, got it? Stick to each other's back like that."

"Sure, whatever," he said with a roll of his eyes. I held up a fist. "No."

My eyes were wide to show him I was being absolutely serious. "You have to, unless you want to hug and make a pinky promise."  
He bumped his fist against mine.


	7. I Write My Own Story

I walked into the forges, sipping the coke, and spotted Nyssa in the corner. She was working on something intently. I tiptoed behind her and then gave a squeal and jabbed my fingers into her side. She yelped and her tools clattered to the ground.

"Your face!" I giggled hysterically. "You should have seen your f-face!"

"Oh, ha, ha, ha, _hilarious _Lea," she grumbled and leaned down to snatch her tools back up. I grabbed an ice from the cup and slipped it down the back of her shirt. "AHHH!"

Her head shot up and she danced around, hand on her back, trying to shake the ice cube out. I laughed hysterically again. "Not funny, Lea."

"I can go against that. Just because you don't have a sense of humor doesn't mean it isn't funny," I said with a snort. She rolled her eyes and then shoved me a few inches back.

Of course, she didn't see that there was a celestial bronze spring right behind my foot. Being the klutz I was, I slipped on it, and fell back. My head hit the side of a table and I gave a strangled groan. I tried to stand up, but I miscalculated where my hand was, hit a dagger board, scrambled away, and then toppled into the forge oven.

"OH MY GODS, LEA!" Nyssa screamed. Huh, first time I ever heard that stony chick ever scream.

"I'm okay!" I called from the forge and tried to blink the coal dust from my eyes as I crawled out from the blazing forge fire. "Man, remind me to clean the inside of that place, it is _nasty_."

Then I noticed Nyssa was looking like she either saw a ghost or tried taking a shower in flour. That pale. "Y-Y-Y…You just c-crawled out of a 3,590 degree Fahrenheit forge and you're o-okay."

Styx. "Yeah, I'm a fire user."

"A fire user?" she said, eyes narrowing. "Okay, Leo, I know it's you."

"What?" I squeaked.

"There hasn't been a fire user for decades, almost a century, and you're suddenly expecting me to believe there's another one of you guys, a girl who has the same power, and appears suddenly as soon as you disappear, looks just like you, and claims to be a twin sister you didn't know you've had?" she said with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay, if you say it like that, it does sound very skeptical, but you forgot that we're twins," I said with a half-smirk. "We're the same, technically speaking, save for the fact he got the extra Y chromosome. Other than that, DNA, height, power, everything physical is the same."

Nyssa's eyebrow still was mashed together. "I still don't think that—"

I sat down, mind rapidly racing and took her hand. _Think about Fault in Our Stars, come on, hormones, you can be useful now! _I think my eyes got a bit foggy but who knew? I looked up slowly and said, "It's time you knew about my past, Nyssa."

And that is how in those forty-five seconds, I made a completely fake past.

* * *

"When I was younger, I remember a mother and a twin brother. Faces and names? Not so much. But one day, a lady in black veils took me away, saying my existence would affect some kind of prophecy badly. I was brought to a new family, a new everything. Until I was eight. Then I couldn't handle being with other people, they were so _different _from me. So I ran."

I closed my eyes and actual tears dripped down. That actually wasn't too different from my actual life. Actually running from everything because the other people were all different. Because _I _was different.

"I've been chased for the last seven years of my life, running around the northern part of this country, looking for Leo with no idea of who my brother was…all I knew was that he would be like me. I can't wait for the day I can see him. And then a crowd of those vampire girls cornered me in an alley in Manhattan a few days ago. I gutted a few of them with my scissors, stabbed some with my fork. Lived.

"And then…I was visited by a god with a flying mail truck. Hermes, I'm guessing now. He rescued me and brought me to the border, telling me to find the Aphrodite cabin's counselor." I looked away. "Which I did. The prophecy was done. And now I can be back with Leo. But he's gone for now."

Suddenly, something inside of me clicked. I _saw _everything I said. It was the strangest thing, like a movie had suddenly switched on. A little girl Leo, running from a house with nothing but a backpack on her shoulder. Walking around in dirty clothes, being chased from other children, creeping into sewers to hunker down for a night.

I gasped as the movie ended. What was that? Whatever it was, the tears were brewing at the base of my neck.

Nyssa _totally _bought it. Like seriously? After I turn back, I was _so _challenging the Stolls to a lie-off. "Oh my gods, I'm so sorry Lea, I never knew you had…I promise you'll meet Leo someday. I promise."

I smiled sadly and managed to choke out, "Thanks, Nis. I'm gonna go meet Pipes, okay? See ya."

* * *

I knocked on the Aphrodite cabin's door. Piper opened it up and I flung my arms around her neck and started bawling into her shoulder. "P-Pipes! I c-can't…"

"Lea, what's wrong?" she asked alarmed, and set me down on her bed and patted my back rhythmically as I sobbed. "What happened? Was it the Stolls again?"

"N-N-No," I cried. "I told Nyssa a fake s-story about myself in the past and suddenly, I saw it all _happen_, and I can't even…I don't know what's happening! Whatever it is, I can't deal with this! What am I on, the e-emotional coaster?!"

I told her the story in between gasps and splutters. The second time was even worse, a sinking, tight feeling knotted my stomach into cramps.

"Oh, Lea," Piper murmured softly. "Shhhhhh, it's okay, Piper's got you. I get it."

"What is it? Tell me!" I wailed. "I'm so scared, I feel like I'm _waiting _for something now!"

She wrapped her arms around me. "This spell is so much stronger than I thought. The potion gave you not only the female body, the female mindset, but now you have an entire female _character_. You needed a story, you gave yourself one, and now…you're really Lea Valdez."

"What?" I gasped. I wiped the tear tracks but fresh ones just flowed down as swiftly as a river. "That's not possible!"

"Who are you waiting for, Lea?" Piper said in charmspeak.

"Leo," I answered in an instant. My jaw dropped as I felt the blood rush from my face. "Oh, gods…"


	8. I Have a Slumber Party

"Where are we going?" I complained.

As soon as the realization had been made, I suddenly wanted to cry so I did. I just curled up on the bed, grabbed Piper's pillow, inhaled the cinnamon-y scent, and began crying like Hades. After a straight half-hour of this, she finally grabbed my hand and marched me out.

"We are going to get you fixed up," she said back. "We're going to talk to our friends."

"No thanks," I said, pulling back. "I am a _mess_."

"No offense, but you will rarely find a time in your lifetime you are _not _going to be mess, Lea," she said right back to me, nose in the air and marching like some kind of general in warfare leading drills. "And if all else fails, I am going to make you feel better."

"How?" I whined, stumbling along behind her.

"Like I said, talk to our friends," she said, miffed. "I'm going to be getting Percy and Jason. You get Annabeth."

I hesitated. "Can I get Nico too?"

She stopped and then squealed. "Oh my gods, do you have the hots for Nico di Angelo?!"

I snorted and rolled my eyes. If only she knew. "No, we're just in a really strong bromance."

Piper shrugged. "Well, fine, if you want. We're going to be getting a ton of unhealthy food, sleeping bags, playing games all night, crashing at separate places at three in the morning…"

"And where exactly are we going to be doing this?"

"Well, a cabin where there's only one person sleeping," she said. "Percy's, Jason's…"

"How about the Leo cave?" I suggested. "We can all sneak out and stay there for the night, then go to separate cabins in the morning. Totally inconspicuous."

"Sweet," she said. "Invite them. Make sure we all call lights out early."

"Got it, Beauty Queen," I said, giving her a small salute. "See you at lunch."

* * *

"Hey, Annabeth!" I called as I jogged into the Athena cabin. "What's up?"

"Oh, hey, _Lea_," she said, gray eyes still searching. "Nothing, just drawing some coffered ceilings for Apollo's shrine. Maybe add a few more condiments to the salad bar."

"Utterly fascinating," I said sarcastically and then smiled. "Let's say you and me and some of the others get together at Leo's little private room under the bed tonight after lights out so I get to know some of you guys better?"

She stood up and I craned my neck. Man, I hated doing that. "Look here, Lea. I want us to be good friends, really. I think you're an interesting person. But I really need to know the truth here…" Uh-oh. "What possessed you to…I'm just so surprised that you were so _stupid_. I mean, ugh…"

I didn't think I'd be able to lie to the Athena kid so well. Her gray eyes looked like they would shoot lasers at me the minute I said something untrue. What to do…?!

"_Why, _gods tell, did you _ever _accept Connor's offer on a date?"

Oh, for Hephaestus's sake… "I keep telling everyone, I _didn't _accept his offer! He just kinda jumped it on me, and…"

"Then you have to shut him down like _that_," she said, snapping her fingers. "Like, seriously? The Stolls are notorious heartbreakers, jumping on the new girls. Their tradition? Breaking their hearts and then embarrassing the girl in front of the entire camp."

"What was I supposed to do?" I said desperately. "I've _never _been asked out before, Annabeth." At least that much was true.

She tapped her chin. "Okay, look, the statistics say that the Stolls prank the girl in the first five minute, eighteen point nine seconds. So how about we prank _them _before that? Launch something hilarious and turn the tables."

Man, of course decent dating advice always comes when I'm trying to turn _down _an offer. "So…what do you think? Like, what kind of prank?"

She grinned and rubbed her hands together maliciously. Reminder #736 not to mess with wisdom's daughter. "Oh, leave _that _to me. By Friday, right?"

"Right."

"Good. I'll see you at lunch. And yeah, I'll come." She went back to her worktable and sat down, working on the coffee ceilings. I knew better than to disturb her with more questions.

* * *

"Nico, come on!" I pleaded as I shook Nico's shoulder. "_Pleeeeeease? _I can't go by myself, especially with Percy and Jason, _especially _like _this_!"

Hades cabin, the only place he likes to be. He hates the sun, of course. I mean, age him a little, give him some hair gel and hair dye, bury him in sparkles, and what do you get? Greek Edward Cullen!

He scowled. "Valdez, I'm not sure what you want me to do. I said no three times already. Do I need to spell it out? N-O!"

"But you _have _to!" I moaned. "I swear to the gods, if you go, I'll do one thing you want me to do. Anything."

"No, I am not—" Suddenly, he stopped. "Wait a second. Anything? As in…anything?" He stared at me intensely. I suddenly felt like sprinting to the doorknob and running for the hills.

"Yeah, sure…anything," I managed to choke out. Wow, this kid was beginning to creep me out. Like, seriously? Who was one year older than whom around here?! Oh gods, I just used the word 'whom.' I've been spending too much time with Annabeth.

"My conditions," he said. "I want you to be a therapist."

I blinked. "Okay, repeat that. I don't get it."

He scowled and sat down lower into his bed. "Being a son of Hades is difficult, Valdez. You try and try to talk to someone, they all run away. You try to talk to your dad, he says he's busy and shadow travels you to England! You try to talk to your step-mother and you're suddenly a dandelion. You talk to ghosts, but they're not the most sympathetic things."

"Okay, fine, I get it, I'll be your therapist and listen to you," I said, blush growing. "W-Why are you sharing so much with me?"

He looked down, face half-a-shade pinker than usual. Nico's standard uncomfortable blush. "Well….I'm at that adolescent stage in life where my feelings are running wild, and you know how I am about boys… it makes me uncomfortable around _any _of them. But you're a girl now, so… Plus, you can't tell anyone without destroying your pride too. And don't forget the fist bump. That was bonding."

"Oh, I get it," I said, trying to be casual, although I was fighting the blood from my cheeks with pure will power. "So… I get it. So, are you coming?"

"Sure," he said, annoyed. "Now, please get out of my cabin." I jumped off the bed and opened the door. He hissed slightly when the sun touched his skin. Yup, he was a bat.

Suddenly, the lunch bell rang. "Are you coming?" I asked as I stepped out.

"I don't eat lunch," he said dully, and closed the door in my face. Very hospitable, I give him thumbs up for being neighborly.

* * *

After lunch, where I snarfed down like no tomorrow, Piper and I went down to the Leo Cave and tried to make it more slumber-party-ish. That meant getting rid of all the cup noodle cups, coffee cups, dirty laundry, other trash, and scraping the soot off the floor.

"The things I do," Piper said as she wiped her forehead after scraping the floor with steel wool one more time. "You so owe me, Leo."  
"Yeah, yeah," I said, blushing, as I threw all the boy clothes down to the incinerator. Those were too hopeless to wash. "I'm owing a lot of people lately."

The lights were in need of some changing, so I did that while Piper covered the floor with a really nice fluffy carpet. Orange, of course, a unisexual color that everyone could like. I rolled around in it, drinking in the scent of lavender.

"Where'd you get this?" I asked, trying to make snow angels in the plushness.

She shrugged. "We have a million of these in the Aphrodite cabin's attic. You want to keep it?"

"Yes please!" I sand, rolling this way and that. I sat up. "Well, we're almost done here. What else do we need?"

Piper shook her head. "_This_ is the finesse of the party." She opened up the huge white canvas bag and unloaded a mountain ofcandy, chocolate, snacks, goodies, and so much more. "Muah."

"Wow," I said, eyes growing at the sheer size of it all. "Where do you keep all this?"

"Aphrodite Cabin's Break up Rations," she said as if that cleared everything up. "Let's see, lights, nice carpet, everything clean, food… we're done here! What time is it?"

I looked down at my watch. "Just…in time…for…_dinner!_" The bell clang. "Genius, right?" I pressed a big red button and the bed elevator came back down. "Let us be off!" **(Sorry I'm rushing things, I just ****_really _****want to get to the slumber party!)**

* * *

"Everybody here?" I hissed outside Cabin 9. It was pitch black and I didn't want to risk flashlights.

"Here," they all called. I could detect Piper, Jason, Percy, Annabeth, and Nico…but there was another pair of voices too.

"Hey, are you Lea?"

"AHHHHHHHH!" I shrieked at the top of my lungs. Luckily, Piper slapped a hand over my mouth when she heard my sharp intake of breath. "Who's that?!"

"Oh, sorry," he said. "My name's, uh, Frank. I'm friends with your brother."

Someone put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm Hazel, Leo's other friend."

"Well, my brother is certainly popular," I muttered. "Okay, everyone, we can get this reunion started _downstairs_. So shut up, be quiet, and tiptoe. Harley's having some trouble sleeping I think the Stolls stole his moose pillow pet."

"Moose are a symbol of Canada!" Frank complained.

"Nobody messes with pillow pets," Percy growled. "The Stolls are getting it tomorrow at Swords Practice."

"Yammer, yammer," I said with a roll of my eyes and quietly opened the door before sneaking in with my ninja-like abilities. Then I tripped over Nyssa's sneakers, but Frank caught me quickly enough so I didn't fall and make a noise.

"Thanks, Frank," I said breathlessly and patted him on the shoulder. "Come here."

We all piled onto my large bed, Nico having the most space because Annabeth and Frank kinda leaned away from him a bit. I pressed a few buttons and _whoosh! _Down we went.

"Cool!" Frank said as he jumped off and landed on the plush carpet.

We all climbed down and looked around the Leo Cave appreciatively. Then we unrolled our sleeping bags, girls on one side and boys on the other. There was a little curtain we installed to obscure the vision at night.

"Where's the bathroom?" Frank asked, holding up big gray sweats I assumed were his pajamas. I pointed. "Thanks. Oh, and you _really _look like Leo."

"So I've been told," I said as Piper and Nico both gave a small snort. Piper caught it and looked at me.

"He knows?" she mouthed, pointing at Nico. I nodded. Her eyes widened in surprise.

Percy picked up his pajamas, green button-ups with blue tridents, and followed Frank out. Jason grabbed a purple t-shirt with a yellow lightning bolt and baggy gray shorts with little storm clouds and walked into the bathroom. Nico stayed.

Until Annabeth gave him a pointed glance, pointing at her pajamas, and he blushed his almost-invisible blush and shadow traveled somewhere, maybe China.

Hazel began taking off her shirt and I yelled, "I'M GOING TO BE OVER THERE!" face steaming. I scrambled over to the work table and tapped a secret rhythm on the surface.

A special hatch opened up and I climbed inside. It was very similar to the one in the Oval Office, with secret compartments everywhere. And it was pitch black so I could change into my big t-shirt without seeing myself.

Convenient.

I was actually very pleased with my choice of PJs. So baggy, it looked like I was wearing a potato sack and you could hardly see that I had a figure at all. I let my hair down and brushed it. I folded up my clothes neatly and set them down.

Ugh, I folded my clothes. My inner Piper was coming out.

We all met outside. Strangely, Nico was wearing his aviator jacket with skull onesies. Nobody asked because his glare warned us not to. Percy looked really hot in his—

_WHAT WAS I THINKING?!_

__"So, what do you guys want to do?" Annabeth asked as she grabbed a bag of chips from the mountain of food.

Piper squealed and clapped her hands. "BLUSH!"

"What?" we all asked.

"Let's play a game of Blush!"


	9. I Play Blush

"I don't like the sound of that," I said with a wince.

"No, its fine, we play it in the Aphrodite cabin all the time!"

"Yup, that totally reassures me," I said sarcastically. "Ok, fine, how do you play 'Blush'?"

She clapped her hands. "Since there's eight of us, this is perfect. Two people try to make the other person blush. Let's say, uh, Hazel and Frank. Frank will try to make Hazel blush, and vice versa! Person who blushes loses."

"And then the winners proceed," Annabeth said. "Is there going to be a prize?"

Piper tapped her chin. "Well, bragging rights. And the right to choose the next game we play."

"But how do we make the other person blush?" I asked. Everybody except Nico, who also was confused, looked at me like I was the stupidest person alive. And being looked at like that by Percy was insulting.

"Any means necessary," she said, and winked. "You know, what happens in a game of Blush stays in a game of Blush."

I leaned in closer to her and whispered so nobody but Nico could here, "Oh no, Piper, I have been a girl for less than 48 hours and I am not going to use 'sex appeal.'"

"Why'd you use air quotation marks?" Nico asked.

"Because it's as if I'm implying something else," I almost yelled back. Everybody was watching. I glared and shoved her away. "Fine, I'll play."  
Percy grinned. "Sounds fun. Let's do it! I'll go first with Wise Girl." They turned to face each other. "Ready?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm ready. You can go first."

Percy closed his eyes and then opened them. Suddenly, they were intense, like sea-green spotlights. I felt my heart flip like a flapjack. Nico looked away and then I realized, _oh, it's Percy_. _Dang, he's gonna die if Annabeth finds out…_

Percy's eyelids were hooded and his lips were parted ever so slightly. Man, he was hot. He grabbed Annabeth's hands and drew her in close. "I love you."

Annabeth grinned at his cheesiness. "Oh, so are we going for the classics? Alright then, I lo-"

Percy silenced her with his lips, drawing her in close and fitting her into the nook of his body. Nico's chin fell to his chest. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it discreetly. There was nothing romantic in the gesture; it's just that sometimes, a person need a hand squeeze every now and then.

His hands locked around her waist and drew her in closer. Hazel fanned herself in that hand-flappy way. Was it just me or was it getting hotter in here? I swear I saw a little bit of tongue. Then Annabeth's cheeks turned pink after about 30 seconds.

"OUT!" I called.

Percy pulled away and Nico finally let out a breath he had been holding in since the beginning. I felt really sorry for the dude.

"Percy, that was NOT FUNNY!" Annabeth yelled as she thwacked him on the head with the heel of her palm.

He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry Annabeth, I just really want to win this!"

She groaned and sat down, face burning.

"At this corner is Jason Grace!" I called in an announcer's voice. "In the other is the mean, the loving machine, Piper McLean! And yes, that is the best introduction ever."

"Jason, I lo—" Piper began, voice edged with charmspeak.

Jason put one finger to her lips and then stared into her eyes. They were an intense blue, like the sky on a summer day. Not a single cloud. Intense, cold, and _so _se—

_WHAT ARE YOU THINKING, VALDEZ?!_

I saw Nico shake his head to clear his thoughts next to me. I turned and threw him a sheepish grin. He returned it. We were both really messed up, weren't we?

Piper blushed and pushed herself away, moaning, "That was so unfair!"

"Oh, come on, Piper, I didn't even say anything!" he said with a laugh. "And you were about to use charmspeak and I don't think that's 'fair.' _I'm _going to win this."

"And now, here is Lea and Nico!" Frank said.

"What?" both of us yelled stricken. "No, where did this come from?"

Hazel shrugged. "Well, the only two people who aren't in a couple are you two, so… make each other blush!"

I thought for a second and then shrugged. Why not? Nico opened his mouth to argue some more probably but I bumped my fists together to remind him of the Fist Bump Pact.

"Fine," he growled. We turned and faced each other.

I leaned in close and said in a sickly-sweet voice, "Oh, Nico, I love you. Won't you marry me?"

A ghost of a smile played on his lips. Ha. A _ghost _of a smile. No matter what gender I am, I will always love puns. The worse, the better!

"I'm in love with you too, Lea, we're meant for each other," he said, mimicking my tone perfectly and batting his eyelashes.

I saw Percy and Annabeth exchange glances. They weren't used to Nico actually getting into something they were more familiar with him being reclusive and shut in. I frowned. There was so much they didn't know about him.

Hazel blushed. Might have been because she was from the 1940s, might have been because he was her brother.

"Don't you want to kiss me?" I asked in what I wanted to be a seductive voice but actually came out all nasally.

His lips twitched at the corners. "I want to so badly, you have no idea. You're the most beautiful _girl _I know."

I was the only person who caught that small tone change at 'girl' and a laugh grenade exploded in my mouth. I giggled hysterically and composed myself while all the others looked at me like I was nuts.

"You're _so_ hot," I said, sticking my tongue out of the corner of my lips. "No wonder every girl who meets you falls in love with you like me. Have you kissed any of them yet?"

Nico must have fund that hilarious too because he grabbed his stomach and bent over, laughing. A real, husky, full-bodied laugh I've never heard before. Everybody was totally shocked.

"How about we go on a date?" he said, winking. Looked like his face was having a seizure.

"A movie, maybe?" I managed between my laughs. "I'd love to watch How to Train Your Dragon."

He fell back laughing. Percy looked at us like we were some kind of Sudoku. "After, I'll t-treat us to dinner! Want a happy meal?"

That did it. I rolled around, laughing like crazy. Nico was chuckling too.

"Am I the only one very confused right now?" Frank asked.

Piper shook her head. "We're obviously going nowhere with these two. Frank and Hazel, you two are up."

"Uh…" Frank said awkwardly. Both he and Hazel blushed simultaneously.

"Seriously?!" Piper said. "One pair exchanges ten pickup lines without blinking an eye, and the other blushes with the _prospect _of exchanging pickup lines!"

"Well, you know 'uh,' Pipes. Such a turn on," I said jokingly. Nico snorted. Percy began laughing but then Nico immediately shut up.

"Ok, both of you guys are out," Annabeth said. "How about we mix this up a bit? Lea and Jason, Percy and Nico."

Was it possible for white to become whiter? Yes it was, and that color was showing on Nico's face. His eyes were the size of hubcaps. I coughed and said, "I-I'll go first?"

He looked at me gratefully and sat right down, rocking back and forth a little. No one paid any attention to him. I turned and faced Jason. I was going to win this.

"Jason," I said softly.

He looked at me with those cute blue eyes that were like a peek of heaven in this rotten world. I stumbled back as an image played in my head.

* * *

_Where were you Leo? I thought desperately as I lay almost dying in an alley. I had a fork and a scissor in my hand. I looked up and saw the blue, blue sky like a peek of heaven in this rotten world._

* * *

I gasped as I came back up and touched my head but my hands were back. I looked up and saw Jason's face was two inches from mine. He had that little white scar over his lip.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

_KEEP CALM, LEA! _"Yup, feeling s-spiffy," I managed to squeak. I forced the blood down with nothing but my pure willpower.

He leaned in closer. He smelled a bit like ginger and the metallic scent right before a storm hit. My face grew hotter. Then he grinned triumphantly and leaned away. "Ha! You blushed!"

I glared at him and pouted. He was still talking. "Man that was so awkward. You literally look just like Leo. Heck, Leo would have been easier, because he and I know there are jokes and—"

"You could have done so much better, Pipes," I snapped to her, fully knowing that Jason could hear.

"Hey!"

"Now for Percy and Nico!" Annabeth called, pointing to them.

Nico looked like a deer caught in head lights. I gave him two thumbs up to spike his courage but he still looked like he was about to walk into a lobotomy surgery. "I, uh…"

Percy grinned. "Nico, I lo—"

"No!"

"But I—"

"I said no!"

"Fine, then you go!"

"I can't!" Nico said eyes livid and smoldering. "You idiot, I _can't _do it!" His face was red.

Percy blinked and said, "Wow, Nico. You're way too straight. Anyhow, I win!" Suddenly, a screwdriver impaled the wall next to his face. He froze and turned to me. "L-Lea? What was that?"

"Next time, it'll be through the eyes so shaddup, Jackson," I growled. Nico didn't even turn to look at me. He just sat down in a color reserved for strawberries.

"Okay, fine, Jason and Percy!" Piper sang. "Jason's going to win."

Annabeth cleared her throat. "I, um, think you mean Percy."

"No, I mean Jason."

"Oh really?" Annabeth asked, pretending to be shocked. "Oh, then want to make a friendly bet? I say ten drachmas Percy wins."

"Ten that Jason wins," Piper said happily. She turned to us. "Aren't you guys going to bet?"

Hazel blushed. "I'm going to go with Percy."

"Jason," Frank said instantly.

Nico shrugged. "P-Percy."

I thought for a second. "I say tie."

"Tie?" Piper said with a laugh. "There is no such thing as a tie. Especially not in a game like Blush."

I laughed. "Fine, Pipes. Everybody here decide whether or not it is going to be a tie. If all six of us decide to say it's a tie, well, I win!" I set down ten drachmas like a boss. Everybody else took some of the gold coins out too.

"Begin!" Annabeth called.

Percy smiled his cute smile and said, "I love you, Jason."

"Dude, your eyes are like the ocean. They're so beautiful."

"Your eyes are like the heaven. I just want to float into them."

"Well, they aren't as hot as your body."

"I want to get into bed with you so bad."

"TIE!" Hazel and Frank screamed, both of their faces flaming.

"Wow, you two are in sync," I muttered as I fanned my face. I know it sounds perverted but there is nothing hotter than seeing two boys confess their love for each other.

Jason leaned in closer to Percy and put on hand on his chest. Percy put his arms around Jason's neck. Annabeth and Piper both grew maroon. Nico was getting squeamish.

"Tie," he growled.

"Tie," I said right after. It _was _getting pretty hot in here. Maybe the AC was broken…?

"You. Me. Bed. Now." Percy said slowly.

"I'll show you something you won't be able to resist," Jason hissed in a really low and husky voice. I fanned myself a bit more. Hazel was covering her ears and humming a tune. Annabeth and Piper were beginning to look like they were lacking oxygen.

"I bet I will, until I show you how good _I _am," Percy muttered back. GODS OF OLYMPUS, DID THESE TWO NOT HAVE ANY EMOTIONS?!

"I love you so much."

"Why don't you prove it?" Percy tugged Jason's shirt and brought him in closer. Jason wrapped his arms around Percy's waste. They came closer…

"TIE!" both of the girls screamed at once and then leaped to tackle their respective boyfriends. I collected all of the gold coins and grinned. Hermes would have been proud.

"Enough!" I said. "What the Hades, you two?"

Nico looked away but I could tell he was blushing. We lost this game big time.

* * *

**Inspired by post/71527149276/poopyuu-heroes-of-olympus-version-based-on**


	10. I Have NeverWhat?

"Okay, so how about we play I Have Never?" Jason asked, clapping his hands.

"Hold up, Captain McSparky Pants, who said you could choose the game?" Percy whined. "It was a tie!"

"I was winning."

"No you weren't."

"Yes I was."

"No you weren't!"

"Yes I was!"

"NO YOU—"

"Percy, let's try to act our age here," Annabeth chastised. "You can choose next. Let Jason have a turn."

"No fair!" the seventeen-year old son of Poseidon howled before crossing his arms and pouting.

"Dude, did you turn Age Eight again?" Nico muttered under his breath (another Fanfic I wrote.) Nobody heard him but me but I grinned and high-fived him behind his back silently.

"How do you play I Have Never?" Hazel asked.

"We go in a circle," Jason explained. "Then, one by one, each person says they have never done anything before. If you _have _done that something, you have to throw in a drachma. It goes on until someone says something everybody else but they have done, or until everyone but one person runs out of money."

"Interesting," I said. "More ways to build my wealth. I'm in!"

Frank glanced at Hazel and then shrugged. "Okay, I'm fine with that."

Hazel smiled brightly. "This will be interesting."

Annabeth frowned though. "But I can say something like, 'I have never summoned diamonds.' Then Hazel has to throw in a coin and that's not exactly fair."

Piper thought. "Okay, no demigod abilities. Agreed?"

"Agreed," we all chorused.

"How do we know if you're telling the truth or not?" Hazel asked timidly.

Superman grinned. "I'll hold it up to your conscience."

"Yeah right," I said with a snort. "Wait three minutes."

I brought out bits and pieces from my tool belt. Out of nothing but pipe cleaners, empty soda bottle tabs, two chopsticks, Celestial Bronze wire, string, a dead battery, and duct tape, I made the world's quickest lie detector machine.

"Ahem. I am Pinocchio," I said clearly. The machine buzzed angrily. "Yup, it works. Let's do this!"

We arranged ourselves a bit so we were in a circle. I was next to Neeks and Piper. Beauty Queen smiled. "Okay, I'll begin. I have never…sung a whole song before."

I threw in a coin along with Annabeth, Percy, Jason, Frank, and, surprisingly, Nico. I raised an eyebrow at him. He looked sad. "I used to sing myself to sleep in the underworld after Bianca died. What about you?"

Who was Bianca? Eh, I would let it go. "Long story about some maenads. Apparently, the theme song to _Psyche _is not the ultimate party starting song."

Frank looked nervous. "Alright. I have never…had a stuffed animal that I can remember."

Jason winced. "I guess. Seeing as it would have been awkward. Neither did I, you know, being raised by wolves?"

Everyone threw in a drachma except for Nico, Jason, and Frank.

Hazel smiled. "I have never…worn anything neon yellow."

Everyone thought for a bit. I remember having yellow Nikes once. Dang it. I tossed a coin. So did Frank, Annabeth, Jason, Percy, and Piper. I glanced at Nico. Guess neon yellow wasn't all too popular in the '30s.

Percy said, "I have never read an assigned English book!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes and tossed in a coin. So did everyone else except for me, Nico, and Hazel. I usually tore up all the paper and used them as origami to get past the excruciating hours of education. Ugh, talking about it made me feel dirty.

"I have never…played soccer," Annabeth said.

I tossed in a coin. I played once, and then never again, 'nough said. So did Frank, Percy, Jason, and Nico. I was worried I would be the only girl but Piper threw in a coin too. Thank gods. Remind me to get that girl a cookie.

"I have never…played a videogame," Jason said.

"How strict are you Romans?" I snapped as I tossed another coin. I had better win that money. Everybody else save for Hazel tossed in a coin.

She was confused. "What's a videogame?"

Nico glared. "I have never…kissed anyone."

Everyone threw in a coin. The corner of his mouth twitched into a smile as I angrily threw my drachma into his lap. "_Very _good, di Angelo. You know what? KUDOS TO YOU! I didn't even have a chance to go, I just lost my money. This is thievery!"

Percy grinned. "Okay, now that I no longer have any money, let's play something classic. How about Imitation?"

* * *

**Sorry it was so short, I'm writing for my other stories.**


	11. I Still Think It Was Frank's Fault!

"Yup, I don't know what that is," I said, shaking my head, "But I can guess it's something that'll further demolish my self-esteem."

"You guessed right!" Percy announced. "Imitation is a game all about imitating. I got it from Tyson. Cyclopes are _boss _at this game. But it's much funnier when demigods do it. You have to imitate someone you know."

"What's the point of this game?" Nico asked through gritted teeth. I knew he didn't want to ask him but sometimes, questions are questions.

"Well, it's just really funny," Percy said with a shrug. "Since we're already in a circle, we can do it this way: I'll tell Annabeth who to imitate, Jason will try to guess, Annabeth tells Jason, Nico tries to guess, blah, blah, blah."

"Such a good explanation, as always," I muttered under my breath. "Fine, sounds an okay way to pass the time. Let's do this."

Percy thought for a second before whispering something into Annabeth's ear, lips curled in a smirk. She rolled her eyes and closed her eyes. She opened them and said, "You know what, Kelp Head? You can take your little pen and shove it!"

Jason's forehead crinkled. Annabeth blushed. "This is hard…um, okay, 'HERA, YOU COW!'" Thunder rumbled. "Oops. She heard me. I regret nothing."

Jason grinned. "Thalia, isn't it?"

"Ding-ding-ding," Annabeth said with a roll of her eyes. "Your turn." She leaned in and whispered something.

Jason fell back laughing and then came back up. "I've never met her, but Percy's told me stories. Okay, here goes, Nico. 'You insolent reminder of my husband's affair! You were so much more agreeable when you stayed corn. Do you _want _to be a dandelion again?'"

Nico moaned. "Gods, Persephone. Ugh, she is a disgusting _zombie _of a goddess." The earth quaked.

I laughed nervously. "Let's, uh, try to _not _get this place destroyed, okay guys?"

"Who do I have to do?" Nico growled. Why did the guy have to be so intense and dark all the time? He was like a black kitten. Adorable but people still avoided him because he was 'bad luck.'

Jason glanced at me and then smirked. "Shmbsszzshsbmbmmm…." he whispered to Nico.

He glanced at me. "Uh, Jason, I don't think that's a good—"

"You have to," Percy piped up.

"Maybe you should just _shut up, _Jackson," Nico snarled. "Fine, I'll do it." He turned to me and his face broke into this half-lopsided-deranged-crazy-stupid-looking smile. "I LIKE FIRE!"

_No…_

"I'M THE SURPEME COMMANDER OF THE ARGO II!"

Everybody broke out laughing save for Piper who knew and was trying to choke down a smile. "Really, Jason? That's—"

"I CAN FIX ANYTHING! MWAHAHAHA!" Nico continued. I glared at him and he shut up and sat down, grinning apologetically. It would have been fine.

If Frank had kept his stupid mouth shut, that is.

"Nah, Nico, he's more like, 'ALL THE LADIES LOVE ME, IT'S JUST COMPLETE COINCIDENCE I DON'T HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!'" Frank hollered. I felt my face flush.

"Frank, that's not nice," Hazel giggled. "Anyway, he's more, 'I'M ON WAY TOO MUCH SUGAR.'"

"MUST FIX THIS ENGINE OR WE ALL DIE!" Annabeth added.

Piper and Nico noticed the look on my face. "Yeah, ha-ha, guys, maybe we should stop—"

"I'M A REPAIR BOY WHO WON'T GET MARRIED UNTIL AN AUTOMATON COMES TO LIFE!" Percy added. "LIKE A GIRL FESTUS!"

"THAT IS _IT!_" I screamed as I shot up. "Oh, I'm SORRY if I'm the legit SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE ARGO II! Excuse _me, _but how many days and nights and _weeks _have you gone without sleeping to build that thing? AND YES, I AM QUITE OBLIGATED TO LIKE FIRE! Also, I _can _fix everything! More than _you _can, Death Breath, you destroy it all!

"As for YOU, FRANK!" I continued, stomping around and ranting. "_WHO _HAS THE MOST FANGIRLS? AND HOW DO YOU KNOW! _YOU KNOW NOTHING! _HAZEL, I EXPECTED MORE FROM YOU! I _AM _ON TOO MUCH SUGAR, _SUE ME!_

"And Annabeth, WHO IN THE NAME OF HADES CAN GO AGAINST THE FACT THAT IF I HAD NOT FIXED THE ARGO, WE WOULD HAVE _DIED_, UNACCOMPLISHED, IN _GREECE_, SO I THINK I AM LIBERATED!

"AND _PERCY_." I prodded a finger into his nose. "JUST…JUST…JUST…_SHAME ON YOU!"_

I grabbed a screwdriver and drove it into the wall, nicking his ear on purpose. But he looked way to dumbfounded to notice. Then what I just said registered into my head.

"Oops," I squeaked.

"Lea?" Annabeth breathed.

"Busted," Nico and Piper moaned.


	12. The Messed Up Pair Club

"Lea?" Frank squeaked like a mouse. Well, since he can legit turn into a mouse, _like_ doesn't really cover it. "Uh, Leo?"

Annabeth couldn't keep her wise mouth shut. "Ha! I knew it! I'm _not _losing my touch. I called it!"

"Congratulations, wanna cookie?" I snapped at her, blushing furiously at the stares I was getting from Hazel, Frank, Jason, and Percy. They were looking at me like I was some kind of animal at the zoo and it was _embarrassing_.

"So, you're Leo?" Jason asked an eyebrow raised. "Uh…care to explain what happened?"

I sat down again and hugged my knees to my chest, trying to shrink into a little ball like a hermit crab and mumbled, "Stolls Idiot 1 and 2 pulled a trick."

"Ah," Percy said. "Well that explains it well. You guys had a bet or something? And you've been pretending to be a girl since yesterday?"

My nose caught on fire as my face flushed even further. I patted it out. "N-no, I haven't been _pretending_. I _am _a girl. They literally changed me into one."

He sat there, looking dumb, for a full on minute, until he turned pink and said, "Oh."

"Genius, Seaweed Prince, 'oh,'" I said sarcastically.

"When you say changed, you mean, uh…" Frank was blushing. Hazel flapped her hand wildly, fanning her face as if this was the most scandalous conversation she'd experienced since reading Twilight.

"Yes, Zhang, _completely_," I managed. If I went a few degrees hotter, I'd spontaneously combust into fire and burn myself out.

"Well…" Percy said after five minutes passed. "Awkward."

"Why didn't you tell us, Lea, uh, Leo, uh, Valdez?" Jason asked. "We wouldn't have laughed at you. We know Leo, uh, you, pretty well."

I don't know _what_ happened. Something inside of my clicked. Have you ever been in a dream where you were someone else and you had a totally different backstory? That happened. But in real life.

"You know _nothing_ about Leo, Blondie," I said angrily as I stood up. "My brother's been through way too much in life and you don't give him enough credit."

Annabeth blinked. It was kinda fun to see the daughter of Athena, usually really smart, be so disoriented. But I was sort of busy freaking out about what in Hades just happened two seconds ago.

"Your brother?" Annabeth asked. "Lea, Leo, whatever, you—"

"Sounding like Mr. D, Wise Girl," Percy muttered.

She shoved him away and rolled her eyes. "_Valdez_, then. One second, you're telling us you're Leo, the next you're calling him your brother. Just what is going on?"

I was utterly miserable as I sat down. One side of my head seemed to be battling with the other, so weird. Was this how people with Multiple Personality Disorder felt? Odd. "I don't know. This has been going on since today. I've been acting like this _Lea_ actually _exists_ instead of me. Leo. It's hard to explain."

Annabeth wrinkled her brow and sat there concentrating for a while and then said, "Okay, I'll research it tomorrow. Second question, how long are you going to stay like this? Do you know yet? Do you have a cure?"

"A month," I said awkwardly.

Annabeth and Hazel both made tiny retching sounds at the back of their throats. Hazel's hand became a blur in the air. "W-When you say a month, you mean…?"

"Yes," I moaned.

"What's wrong with a month?" Jason asked. Frank and Percy looked at each other and shrugged. Even Nico raised an eyebrow. And this was why Camp Half-Blood needed a Demigod Health Class.

"Should I get the tape?" Piper asked, beginning to get up.

I threw myself at her and shoved her back into sitting position, screaming hysterically, "NO, NOT THE TAPE! NEVER MENTION THE TAPE!"

Annabeth looked exasperated. "You showed him—her—Valdez?"

"Well, S-H-Valdez has a right to know, seeing as it's a month," she said defensively.

"WHAT HAPPENS IN A MONTH?" Percy yelled like an impatient toddler asking if the moon was made of cheese or not.

"Nothing you have to know, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth mumbled, red in the face, and she pushed Percy away again.

"Well, we've had enough excitement for one night," Piper said, standing up. "Why don't we go to sleep now? It's near midnight anyway."

They all nodded and shuffled around nervously. Frank drew the curtain and All the boys disappeared behind it. I sat there, really nervous as to what to do.

"Uh, where do I—?" I began asking Annabeth desperately.

She shrugged. "Well, since you're a girl, you have to sleep here I guess."

Hazel squeaked just like her boyfriend and turned an even deeper ruby. Ha. Hazel turning ruby. That's actually not too bad—FOCUS, LEA, TIME FOR ADHD LATER! "Um, I'm not completely comfortable with that."

I nodded. "To be honest, me too."

"It's sleeping, Valdez," she deadpanned and wriggled into her lilac and purple sleeping back. "'Night."

I noticed Hazel inched as far away from my orange sleeping bag as she could. Hers was gold. Wow, she had so many puns around her. I made a mental note to write them all down later. I clapped my hands and the lights dimmed until we were in utter blackness. I tried to lay still, but my fingers would not stop twitching and the blood refused to leave my face.

So silently, like a ninja, I sneaked my way stealthily over to the small cabinet underneath the work table I had changed in earlier. So stealthy was I, I only walked into three walls! (Don't ask me how, I really don't know. I made such a racket, Annabeth threw a pillow at me and that girl has _deadly _accurate aim. Even in the dark. Lying down.)

I tried to be as quiet as possible as I tapped in the sequence and crawled into the little space and spread out my sleeping bag. I lied down and sighed, before snuggling to the leather pillow and trying to go to sleep.

_Wait. Since when did I have a leather pillow?_

Then my leather pillow moved and I screamed as loud as I could.

Lucky Nico's hand slapped across my mouth as I inhaled. Was it that predictable I was going to scream? Anyway, I made my fingertip burst into flames and there Nico was, head ducked, in his skull onesies and jacket. I slapped his hand away.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Shhhhhh!" he whispered angrily. "You came in first."

"No need to whisper, I made this place soundproof," I grumbled. "How did you get in here? The taps—"

He shrugged. "I just shadow traveled into the little cabinet I knew was under the work table. I sense nooks and crannies if I touch something. It seemed big enough to nap in. And I don't feel all too comfortable sleeping with _him _in the same room, if you don't mind."

I blushed. "I see. Well, can I share the room? I'm not too comfortable sleeping anywhere else either."

He shrugged and dug into his little corner, curling up into a little ball. He rested his head on his knees. I squished myself as far away as possible and stayed like that for maybe a few minutes before I started getting a cramp and then just laid down comfortably.

I stared at the inky blackness and sighed. "Wow, Nico, we are one messed up pair."

"I agree," he mumbled.


	13. Therapy With Lea 101

I woke up in complete darkness and wondered what woke me up in the middle of the night before I remembered I was in a tight black cupboard. I felt around and felt a leather bundle in the corner. Wow, had the dude managed to keep himself like that for a full night?

"Neeks, wake up," I grumbled sleepily and I tapped quickly tapped the rhythm needed to open the door from the inside. The hatch popped open and I crawled out, yawning.

The lights, time sensitive, were dimly on. That meant it was near 6:30 or so. They would be on full brightness in half an hour. I screwed my eyes shut and yawned again before crawling right on top of Piper.

"AHHH!" I heard her scream. I toppled back and raised my arms to block her barrage of punches and strikes.

"THIS IS A DELICATE FACE DO NOT BREAK MY BEAUTY, PIPES!" I shouted, always modest despite gender.

She stopped and gave let a deep breath out. "Really, Lea? You're creeping around more than Nico as of late."

"I take offense to that," he said from right behind her.

"AHHH!" she screamed again. This time, the drapes were ripped open. Jason was there, weapon drawn. They sleep with blades? That's demigods for you, I guess.

"Pipes, what's wrong?" Jason asked, running to her side. And he wins the Honorable Boyfriend award for the 3,972 time, who'd have guess?

"Nothing, Jason, Lea just gave me a fright," Piper said, panting from all the screaming she'd done. "My lungs just got a workout."

Jason looked up and I puffed my cheeks out at him, eyebrows scrunching together. I turned around, nose in the air and arms crossed. "Leo, you still upset about what happened yesterday?" He said this in an exasperated way like I should have just let it go.

"You badmouthed me behind my back, Superman," I said stoutly. "That's not something someone can just not be upset about over one night."

He stood up and ran his fingers through his blonde hair. "Look, Leo, I will take full blame and throw myself off of a cliff if you can say honestly that you have never said anything bad about me behind my back, including insulting my 'unmanly blondness.'"

I turned to Piper who was grinning apologetically. "You told?"

"Come on, it was a funny statement!" she said with a giggle. "And it's true. You've said something bad about everyone here besides Annabeth and that's only because you're scared of her."

"You know what, Blondie? Maybe Leo's said some bad stuff about you but it still isn't nice to do that, and I apologize for him," I snapped. "Maybe you and Pipe-Pipe here should go through friendship counseling with him or something because you guys sure as Hades aren't getting the Friend of the Year Award anytime soon,"

He blinked. "Uh, Lea?"  
Piper frowned. "This is getting confusing."

Nico raised an eyebrow, body half-hidden by shadows. Dang, that kid _still _gave me the freaky-deakies like his dad who I have met only when we had that huge Yay, Gaea is Defeated celebration last month.

I winced as I said, "Look, I'm not really getting it either. It's like I'm becoming more and more like Lea. Who doesn't exist. But I'm acting like her! So confusing." I pouted. "Not to mention I'm still ticked."

Jason sighed. "Okay, fine, I'm really sorry, Leo. Is it okay now?"

I looked up at him through my long, annoying lashes. "Promise you won't make fun?"

"Promise," he said with a grimace. His face was becoming pink. He threw his hands up in exasperation and went behind Piper like I would turn into a horrible octopus monster and throttle him. "I can't even talk to you!"

"Really Jason?" Piper said with a laugh. "The great past-praetor of New Rome, unable to talk to his gender-bended best friend."

"You don't get it, Pipes, Leo has puppy dog eyes now," he complained. "Leo is not allowed to have puppy dog eyes! It's unnatural!"

Even I had to laugh at that.

Piper shrugged off her sleeping bag as she struggled to her feet, not a wrinkle in her white PJs. I looked down and mine looked like they've been through a fire hurricane, smoking and charred and wrinkled. I tend to move a lot like sleeping.

Nico's lip twitched when he saw me staring at the horrendous state my clothes were in and mouthed, "I'll tell you later," to me. I blushed. Obviously, he was well acquainted with the fact I'm a somnambulist. Ah well.

"Why are they not up yet?" Piper said with a roll of her eyes. "Hang on."

She walked into the boys' part of the room and ducked to yank a pillow from right under Frank's head. His head hit the floor and he woke up with a snort, leaping straight into the air and trying to nock a bow to his arrow (you're supposed to nock an arrow to a bow.)

"If I was a monster, I would have killed you by now," Piper said with a roll of her eyes. "Get up, Frank! Up!"

She went to Percy and yanked the pillow out from under his head. But he didn't move. His arms were still around a panda pillow pet. Piper grabbed that and tried to tug it from his grasp but she just managed to drag him around the room.

"Piper, he's _never _going to wake up from that," Frank said. "Here, let me try. Percy, I call dibs on the last piece of reindeer sausage!"

"RUDOLPH IS MINE!" He yelled and leapt to standing position. If the reason why he was waking up wasn't so ludicrous, I might have been impressed.

"You two have some apologizing to do, especially you, Jackson," Piper said, crossing her arms and giving them a glare. I made a mental note to suggest a Clarisse costume for her next Halloween.

Frank looked from me to Piper to Percy and back to me and looked down. "I-I'm really sorry about what I said yesterday, Leo. But you know we all said those things because we love you, right?"

I knew this was supposed to be really sentimental and all, but I _really _couldn't help making one statement: "Oh, Frankie, you love me? You better not let Hazel hear you say that. I know turning into a girl made me miraculously sexy, but some people are jealous."

"And this is why we badmouth you behind your back, you make it so EASY!" Frank moaned.

Percy slung an arm around my neck. "Well, I guess everything's fine now!"

I shoved my hand into his face and pushed him away roughly. "Nuh-uh. I want a separate apology from _you_. What you said was kinda hurtful."

He grinned apologetically. "I'm sorry, Leo. I thought it would be kinda funny. You know, give your twin sister some of your worse, crazier aspects, and when she meets you, it'll all be better of a meeting!"

I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, bottom lip quivering.

"NO, I MADE HER CRY!" Percy yelled. "SOMEONE CALL 9-1-1, WHAT DO I DO?! STOP DROP AND ROLL?! AHHH!"

I giggled. "Just kidding! But seriously, you should know that some of us haven't met the other perfect half like Annabeth. Just wait, there's going to be someone. I know it."

He stopped and then laughed loudly before high-fiving me. The dude could be pretty awesome at times, despite his Seaweed Brain-y-ness.

Then someone stirred behind me. I turned. Annabeth's lavender sleeping bag rustled and she slowly got up. Her hair was a _mess_. You know how a cartoon sun has those short sun rays surrounding it? Yeah, that was Annabeth's head.

She opened her eyes and her gray eyes were darkly intense. I could tell in a second she did not like to be woken up with nose upon more noise. "Percy, dear?" she said sweetly.

Percy's eyes were wide. "Y-Yes, Annabeth?" Only thing that will make the son of Poseidon stutter. The terrifying, purely fearsome force that was also known as his girlfriend.

"SHUT UP!"

Note to self: Never put an angry Annabeth and a worktable full of dangerous, throw-able objects into the same room. Why? Result will be a group of screaming demigods trying to dodge the barrage of monkey wrenches.

"Why so noisy?" Hazel complained as she got up. "Can't anyone sleep around here?"

And then a hammer impaled Nico in the head. Piper squeaked. We all froze. Hazel screamed, "NICO!"

"I'm all right," was the tired reply.

The left side of Nico's head was no longer there. Instead of features, there were shadows. Black, smoky mist where there should have been. I looked to Hazel with a look that screamed WTH?! (What the Hades, of course.) She looked just as shocked as I did.

Then the smoky black shadows bended and formed Nico's face again. He looked at us and shrugged. "It's a Hades thing. Our bodies can take the shape of shadows in dire circumstances if the wounds turn not too fatal."

"Not too fatal?" Percy said in disbelief. "A hammer to the head is 'not too fatal?' Then what is?"

He turned slowly and glared at him with enough hatred to make my skin crawl. "Oh, I don't know. Say, shoving a person inside of a Dumpster Robot Monster, maybe?"

He would have looked less broken and upset if Nico had stabbed him in the heart and then slit his throat. I felt kind of sorry for the dude. Nico turned, clenched fist shaking as if he was fighting the urge to grab his sword.

"I'm leaving," he hissed. He looked at me once. I nodded ever so slightly so only he would notice.

Then he disappeared.

Without a word, the other Greeks clean up their messes. They sat on my bed and I silently send them up to the Hephaestus cabin, knowing fully well they would be quiet. Then I sit in a small triangle with Hazel and Frank on the ground. We look at each other uncomfortably and I begin laughing.

It started as a chuckle but as I thought about the scenario, I just began laughing harder and harder.

"What?" Frank asked, bewildered. "Am I missing something here?"

I wiped a tiny tear. I was laughing _that _hard. "N-Nothing. I just realized that a few months ago, whenever it was just us three, you and I would kind of have a Show Off Battle for Hazel. We're not doing that now, are we?"

Even Hazel giggled a little, although she fanned herself and wouldn't meet my eye, as if I had just made a dirty joke. I would have never survived in the 30's.

"So, we're just going to have to stay here until breakfast?" Frank asked.

I shook my head. "No, you two just stay here until breakfast, I have a meeting with someone. Just make sure to keep it PG, you two. I don't want to have to explain anything to Chiron."

"L-Lea!" Hazel spluttered, hand flapping like Flappy Bird.

I just laughed and went into the bathroom to wash up a bit and put on a fresh pair of overalls. Man, I love my overalls.

* * *

I tiptoe, the sun rising behind me and warming my back. I hummed the Mission Impossible song under my breath as I did a somersault for no reason and Ninja Sprinted to the Hades cabin. I stopped as soon as the towering black bunk wiped all fun and sunshine from the air.

Cabin 13 does that.

I knocked on the black obsidian door and it creaked open. I _really _hoped I wasn't in a horror movie, because this would have been where the audience was screaming, "DON'T GO IN THERE! YOU IDIOT! THERE'S A CHAINSAW MURDERING FREAK IN THERE!"

But inside was only a Nico, elbows on knees, head in hands, sitting on the bed.

I sat next to him without a word and put a hand on his head. He didn't move.

"It's okay to cry, you know," I said finally.

He raised his head and looked at me with empty, cold black eyes that rang an echoing pain. "What?"

"That's what your problem is, right?" I looked down at my levy-jeaned legs. "You're not the only one. There's a little bit in me who cries every single day…every day, drowning, again and again in an ocean of tears."

He moaned. He was also well associated with Mourner, from what I heard. "Valdez, I'm not—"

"So you think starving yourself, dying little by little, every single son of a mother of a day is better?" I asked him quietly. "No, Nico. When life hands you lemons, you have to cut them up and squirt the lemon juice into life's eyes."

"I don't think that's the right way to say that quote."

"Say that to Jay, a kid in the Ares bunk, he has it tattooed on his calf."

"Isn't he only twelve?"

"Aren't you only fourteen?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Dad told me there was a little time anomaly with my birth date. I'm fifteen."

"Oh…" Suddenly knowing this guy was my age made it a bit more uncomfortable talking to him. I embraced the fact that I was taller by two inches. "Not the point, stop trying to milk my ADHD for all it's worth to you.

"What I mean is, Nico, do you know what I do to swim? Swim in that dark, dreary, whirl-pool filled ocean that happens to be my heart?" I turn and look at him deep into his eyes. "I laugh. I enjoy life. _That _is the secret."

"And how exactly do I enjoy life?" he growled.

"Well, we're first going to have to begin with a makeover," I said. "Your entire look kinda yells, 'I'm a scary emo kid.' Don't the people at McDonalds give you weird looks?"

"I don't really make eye contact. And I am _not _having a 'makeover.'"

"Why did you make air quotation marks?"

"You have no right to ask that question."

I giggled. "Let me get Piper. I can only do, like, ten percent of the things she can do."

He leapt to his feet looking murderous. "No way in Hades, Valdez, you are not associating another person in this."

I sneered as I stood up and looked down at him from my extra two inches. "Uh-huh. You wanted me to be a therapist? Welcome to Therapy With Lea 101, kid."

And then I jumped to the door, threw it open, and raced like a madwoman to the Aphrodite bunk, Nico, staying in the Hades bunk, cursing at me in a mix of Italian, Ancient Greek, Latin, and English.

If you want to know what "son of a dislocated shoulder bone from the pits of Tartarus" is in Italian, Nico's your guy.


	14. A New Pillow for Neeks

I pulled Piper toward Cabin 13, laughing, "C'mon!"

She was actually very excited for this task after she got over the initial shock that it was Nico di Angelo asking for the makeover. She shoved a bunch of stuff inside of a duffel bag and then we were running. Her cabin mates looked so confused.

"Oh my gods, you're really serious?" Piper squealed. "This is going to be so much fun!"

"You have to make it look good, Pipe-Pipe," I giggled. "Hurry up!"

We finally made it to the doorstep. She stopped dead…

Ha, ha, _dead_. That one was actually something I _walked _right into. I threw my head back and laughed at that. Piper looked at me like I was nuts, which I very well might have been.

"You're going to stay out here?" I asked casually as I walked right in. "Welcome to Cabin 13!"

Luckily, she got over it pretty well enough, save for the fact her complexion became lighter and she wouldn't stop shaking. I would have felt sorry if I didn't feel like she was overreacting a bit. This wasn't a haunted house.

Oh wait, actually, it was. Oh well.

"Neeks, come out!" I called. I walked around, peering into nooks and crannies. I made my way to the bathroom. "Neeks?"

Two hands roughly grabbed the straps of my overalls and slammed my back to the wall. I blinked the blurs out of my eyes and Nico was there, angry and black. "What are you doing? I told you to bring no one into this. And yet you just—"

Time to use my secret weapon. I looked up at him through my lashes. "Nico, I just want to help you. Do you…do you trust me?"

"Not at all." I raised an eyebrow. "Okay, a mediocre amount."

I took a step forward and he took a step back. Progress! "Then can you please do this for me? I just want you to laugh and help you swim."

"T-That's not fair, Lea! Stop looking at me like that. It's not going to work, puppy eyes never do on me." His glare battled my gaze for thirty seconds. New record, I'll give him that, but at the end of those thirty seconds, he was pink. "Fine! Nothing warm."

I squealed and clapped my hands together. "Thanks, Neeks! Come on." I grabbed his hands and pulled him into the main room where Piper was sitting on the bed, knees pressed close and body hunched as if she was trying to ward off the dark vibes of the place.

"I brought him!" I sang, trying to put a happy edge to everything. But Cabin 13 was anti-happy, so it didn't do much. "Do you magic, Piper."

She looked up and let go of everything for a minute. She narrowed her eyes and squinted at Nico's clothes, posture, hair, and face. He squirmed uncomfortably and I bumped his shoulder in what I hoped was an inspirational way. He might have found it mocking because he glared at me.

"Okay, brown and black _does _suit you rather well, but I feel like a nice shade of blue might suit you too," she said. "A trim at your hair, give you a physical therapy session, and you'll be golden. Here, change into this."

She dug into the duffel and brought out a pair of light blue jeans, a brown polo t-shirt, and a black hoodie jacket. Piper handed them to me as if handing them directly to Nico might kill her.

"I-I don't think this jacket is really him," I said, handing the black hoodie back.

Piper looked slightly miffed that her fashion sense was being questioned but she shrugged and said, "Okay, I have a robin cardigan in here somewhere."

I shook my head. "No, I like the aviator's jacket."

He looked at me gratefully until her remembered I was the one to blame for the makeover and he glared again. Scary kid, scary kid. He grabbed the shirt and jeans with a _swap_ and stomped into the bathroom to change.

"C-Can I go now?" Piper asked nervously, glancing around the cabin.

I nodded. "Thanks Pipe-Pipe, I got his hair."

"No problem," she said, and stood up and walked away. Piper stopped at the doorway. "But…where'd you get Pipe-Pipe? You usually just call me Pipes or Beauty Queen."

I thought for a minute. "Those don't sit well with me. I feel Pipe-Pipe is a better nickname. Like Jason is Blondie, Annabeth is Annie, Frank is Frankie, Percy is Ariel, and Hazel is Hazelnut."

She nodded. "Well, if you change your mind, I guess its fine. 'Bye, Lea."

"Bye."

Piper walked out calmly and closed the door but I had a feeling that as soon as she heard the lock click, she was running for the hills, exactly what I would have done on my first day. I sigh and sit on the bed.

"Is she gone?" someone whispered behind me.

"AHHHH!" I scream and jump off the bed. Half of Nico's face was protruding from a shadow, eyes nervous. "NEEKS! It is _not _polite to just scare someone like that!"

"It's your choice on whether you want to be scared or not," he shot back. "I don't like this outfit. It's so…unlike me."

"Let me see," I said, and stood aside. He hesitantly walked out of the shadows and turned to me. "Aw, come on, Neeks. Ya look great!"

"No I don't," he said miserably. "I want my old clothes back."

He and I glanced at each other and there was a mutual agreement of a contest to see who could get to the bathroom faster. I won, tripping him as we ran. I grabbed the t-shirt and black jeans and set them on fire.

"Well, you can't have them back now!" I said brightly and shoved the charred remains into the sink, turning the obsidian taps. Smoke spiraled to the ceiling. I turned and faced Nico.

Nico usually consisted of black and white. But when he wore other colors besides black, you could see how pale his skin really was. It was kind of unsettling. "Nico, have you been eating lately?"

"Yes. Not much, but yes."

"Sleeping well?"

"Yes."

"_Neeks_."

"No."

"Why?" I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the bed, launching into Therapist Lea.

If his eyes were glass, they would have shattered. I instantly felt like a jerk for asking the question, but I really did want to help him. "Nightmares."

I didn't have to prod any more to realize that he was talking about Tartarus. "Oh, nightmares. I can help with that."

He shook his head. "Valdez, no…there's nothing anybody can do."

I winked at him. "Anything can be fixed. I think the problem is your pillow. Can you take a little nap before breakfast?"

Nico shook his head furiously. "I am _never _going to sleep if I can help it. And no matter what you—"

"Then just close your eyes and lie down," I urged. "No napping. Just see if the pillow is okay."

He scowled. "What pillow?"

"Surprise, surprise."

Nico looked like he was going to argue some more but then rolled his eyes dejectedly and lay down on the bed. I raised his head up a smidge and sat down before letting his head back down so it was on my lap.

"What are you doing?!" he asked, shooting up.

I chuckled and said, "Aw, Neeks, no worries. My mom used to do this all the time whenever I had nightmares. Lap pillows are the best! And yes, this is the doctor's prescription!"

His glowered but lay down again. I was glad he did this easily or I would have been forced to rip out the duct tape otherwise. He stayed stiff and still for the longest time until he began to relax. I patted his head and laughed.

"You're like a little black kitten," I said. I expected an angry retort but all I heard was a rhythmic breathing. Jeez, the guy was asleep.

"'Night, Neeks," I said softly and vowed to stay still until the breakfast bell rang.

* * *

**Alright, I'm turning this into Valdangelo! Slowly. And then there's going to be the evident break up at the end, but ah well. Sorry if this chapter seemed rushed, I need to get to the next week so I can introduce a new villain. Guess who this sorceress is?**


	15. Force Feeding is Fun!

"Any nightmares?" I asked as the loud clanging of the breakfast bells woke him up.

He got up sleepily and pushed the hair out of his face. "Huh. Surprisingly, none. Thanks, Valdez."

"No problem, my friend!" I said happily. "Step three into becoming a better, more complete person. Food! Come on, stand up, chop, chop!"

"We're not even British," he complained drowsily as I pulled him towards the dining pavilion. "You go on ahead and eat something. I have to go get Frank and Hazel. For all I know, the big guy's gotten so hungry, he's resorted to cannibalism."

"That's gross, Valdez."

"Thank you, I'm here every Thursdays and Fridays," I said brightly and ran to the Hephaestus cabin. Nyssa seemed to have cleaned up the bunk well enough. "Hey, Nis!"

"You're up early, Lea," she said, raising an eyebrow. "And where've you been?"

"Getting illegal volatile chemicals from CVS," I said sarcastically. "Imma be down in the Leo Cave, _chica!_"

I spiraled down in my bed Frank and Hazel were kissing.

"Yo, you two, don't let me see any tongue, got it?" I called loudly.

"L-L-LEA!" Frank yelped as he jumped away. Hazel looked down, eyes wide and blushing crazily. "No, you don't get it, I was, uh, she and I, well, we—"

"Breakfast," I said.

"Oh, yay!" Frank said, quite forgetting what had happened three seconds ago. I rolled my eyes. I wasn't too sure if it had been ADHD or the fact that he was a boy, but either way, I was still exasperated.

"Come on, you two, make out over a bowl of oatmeal," I said and scooted aside for Frank and Hazel on the bed. There was an awkward silence as we shot up. Nyssa and the last of the Hephaestus bunch had cleared out. "Whelp. Here we are. To the dining pavilion!"

I opened the door and majestically walked out. I liked the Hephaestus cabin because we were the closest to the dining pavilion. That meant first in line during barbecue nights. Score!

But because we were a bit late, the entire place was almost crowded. There was a tiny table for the New Rome visitors, but Hazel and Frank usually sat next to Nico at the huge, jewel-studded black ebony table with dead flower pots and silverware decorated to look like human bones that was known as Cabin 13's lunch table.

Yup, the happy-go-lucky table of tables.

So naturally, I sat down next to Neeks. You can _never _go against a Fist Bump Pact.

"So, what did you get?" I asked, pointing to my plate and ordering some French toast.

Nico looked down at his breakfast which was half a half a pomegranate. Was that irony? "As you can see, I have half a pomegranate."

And something inside of me snapped. I grabbed Nico by the front of his jacket and forced him to his feet while looking daggers. "Look here, di Angelo, I eat nothing but salad all day and I'll probably end up gaining three pounds. Ariel can have a truck-load of chocolate and still be ready to model in _Swimmer Weekly_. You boys don't know _how _lucky you are."

"I'm not eating more," he said coldly. "And you can't make me?"

I bared my teeth into a grin. "Is that a challenge?"

I grabbed the French toast off of my plate and _crammed _it into his mouth. His eyes bulged as I forced it down his throat.

"Hey, Lea, what're you doing?" Percy asked as he passed by.

"Force feeding Nico," I said, grabbing a sausage off of Frank's plate much to his dismay and shoving that down as well.

"Cool," Percy said and walked right by. Nico's eyes grew huge in disbelief.

"You need to drink more milk!" I yelled and grabbed the cup, thrusting it into his mouth. Nico's eyes rolled into his head. "And fruit!"

* * *

"I am never going to forgive you for that," Nico said as he lay down on my lap, green and sweaty in Cabin 13.

"Oh, come on, you liked it."

"Do I _look _like I enjoyed that? At all?" he hissed. "You almost split my trachea forcing all of that food down."

"Whatever," I said with a roll of my eyes. "Lesson number four in becoming a better person. I…usually stick to this one. Laugh."

"I don't laugh," he said darkly.

"Then what was that yesterday when you and I played Blush?" I asked.

He closed his eyes and winced. "I honestly don't know. It just came up."

I looked down at his face and smiled. "Well, from what I can tell, you like puns and inside jokes. Remember when we were on the boat to Epirus, and a rock came and smashed that mast? I said, 'do you think those grow on trees?' And then you replied—"

"'Masts _are _from trees,'" he said weakly, cracking the smallest smile ever. "Almost forgot about that."

"First little bit of humor I've ever heard you use," I said wistfully. "You're usually so dark and cold and gloomy."

Suddenly, a splitting headache hit me.

* * *

_I huddled my legs together, trying to keep the sobs from coming out too loudly. I pressed my back harder to the mildew of the sewer walls and prayed to God those monsters wouldn't find me._

_I stared up at the little patch of black sky up ahead of the ladder. It was so dark and cold and gloomy._

Twin? Wherever or whoever you are? _I thought dejectedly. _Please meet me soon. And God? You up there? Well, my life's been one cruddy event after the other. So can I have just…just one happy dream?

_I sank into the black nightmares._

* * *

I gasped as I opened my eyes. "Not good, no, no, not good at all…"

Nico opened his eyes and wiped his cheek. One of my tears had dropped onto his face. "Valdez, you're crying." He sat up. "What's wrong?"

I grabbed his shoulders. "I have to find him, Nico! Leo, he's out there somewhere, I have to find him before I die…"

He furrowed his brow. "What are you talking about? You _are _Leo."

I screwed my eyes shut and pounded my forehead with the heel of my palm. "Yeah. I-I know. Gods, this is so confusing." I stood up. "Sorry, Nico, I have to go find Annabeth. She-she might now the answers."

He blinked and then looked down. "Yeah, I guess you do. Go, I'll see you at lunch."

I squeezed his hands, a friendly gesture. "See ya, Neeks."

Then I wiped my tears one more time before running off to the Athena Cabin. My head was hurting; the agony just like Zeus's when Athena popped out of his noggin all those millennia ago.


	16. Turning Into a Complete Lea

**Sorry I updated so late, I went into the city and watched Les Miserables!**

* * *

"So you're getting flashes of your fake character, Lea?" Annabeth asked as she sat across from me in a big leather chair. She looked scary as a psychologist.

"Yeah," I sighed. "I don't…I have _no _idea what's up. It's like I'm _becoming _another person." I draw my knees closer to me. "I can't handle this."

Suddenly, another vision flashed in front of my eyes.

* * *

_"__I can't handle this!" I screamed as I stabbed a man with only one eye in the stomach with my fork and scissors. "What did I do?! What exactly did I do to tick you off, God?!"_

_I ducked a snake woman hissed and leaned forward with fangs glistening with woman. I blasted her in the face with fire and watched as she crumbled into yellow dust. Another one of those women came, and I scooped up the powder before throwing it into her eyes._

_Then I ran as fast as I could away, jumping off a bridge onto the top of a bus. I kneeled down and ducked my head, cuddling my legs to my body and trying to get warm._

* * *

I gasped and bunched the comforter up in my fists. "I just…had another one. They're getting more and more _vivid_." I began crying. I couldn't stop myself. "Annie, what is wrong with me?"

"Nothing is wrong with you, Valdez," she said to her knees. I could tell she was thinking. "I got what I could from Piper. Convincing Nyssa about your past messed you up the most. Your subconscious is completely messed up right now, not knowing what to think. You provided a story, thus your subconscious will adapt to it."

"In English?"

"Your brain was like, 'Whaaaaat?' when you turned into a girl. Then you gave your story. Your brain went, 'Ohhhhh,' and is now making fake memories to back you story up." She sat back. "Oh gods, if this wasn't so serious, this would have been one of the biggest breakthroughs in psychology."

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to be a guinea pig!" I wailed. "What happens if I have a whole new set of memories?"

She pursed her lips. "Well, since this has never happened before, I don't know for sure, but I can hypothesize at least three outcomes right now. One: you develop Multiple Personality Disorder. Sometimes you're Leo, sometimes you're Lea. Two: You forget the Leo part of your brain forever until you turn back. Three: You go insane."

"I like option one best," I said with a grimace.

Annabeth closed her eyes. "It's not a choosing thing. But the visions…I'm still confused as to how they're so real to you. Maybe it's different for demigods."

"So what can I do to not go insane?" I asked desperately.

She thought. "We bring all of those memories. We keep on connecting dots to your life and Lea's life. If the transition is as quick and as soon as possible, it'll all be okay."

"My head hurts, I'm not sure if it's talking to you or the battling subconscious thing," I complained. "How do we 'connect the dots?'"

"Why did you use air quotation marks?"

"Because…huh, no reason. Sorry, habit." I sniffled and wiped my tears. "How do we connect the dots?"

She sighed. "Well, your brain seems to be putting the fake memories of Lea and your everyday lifestyle together. But I know a person to go to if it is memories we're talking about."

Annabeth stood up and headed out. I followed her, ducking my head to avoid eye contact with any of the people. We stopped in front of a cozy looking cottage with straw ceilings and whitewashed wall.

"Clovis!" she called as she walked inside.

A shock of drowsiness hit me like a sack of bricks. "Can I take a nap?"

"No," Annabeth said curtly, although her own eyelids drooped. "Clovis!"

A blonde-haired boy woke up with a yawn. "What?" he said, voice slurred.

"I have a memory case for you," Annabeth said. She explained the circumstances and Clovis listened with one eye almost closed. He must have been really excited.

"Okay, but if you want to make the transition better, we need someone who you trust and can confide in," he murmured. "You have anyone like that?"

I thought. "Um…I want Nico di Angelo."

Clovis snorted awake. _That _was how shocked he was. "I didn't expect that. Okay, go get him. I don't really want to recommend him though."

"I want him," I said coldly and walked out of Cabin 19 before running as fast as I could down the hill to Cabin 13.

* * *

I settled down into one of the beds. Nico held my hand as my eyelids drooped.

"Let me go get some of my supplies," Clovis mumbled as he got out of bed and lazily limped to the herb rack. "Make sure she doesn't fall asleep."

"Tell me what I did the last time I fell asleep," I murmured, almost not able to keep my eyes open any longer.

His lips twitched. "Well, you first flopped around a bit like a dead fish. Then you cuddled with your blanket a bit. Mumbled a few incoherent words I couldn't understand. Then you burst into fire on and off."

"Ha," I murmured sleepily. "Ha."

"I'm here," Clovis murmured. "Sleep."

His word was my command. My lids fell down and I drifted into black nightmares.

* * *

My earliest memory would have to be playing with a boy whose name I didn't know. We were twins, because an ugly woman with a mole who shared an almost-likeliness to my mother cooed, "What adorable twins! And Gemini, too."

I don't know for sure what that meant, but I didn't like her. But another one, an old woman wrapped in black veils and dress, scooped me up from babysitting my brother and I from my crib and told me that I would mess up a pore for Cissy. I think she meant prophecy now.

So I was delivered across the country to a doorstep orphanage. I _hated_ it. School was so hard. I was ADHD, for sure. I would have known without the tests. But always, weird things would happen. Boys would turn into wind spirits, horses by the stables would turn into clouds, and men with one eye would stroll up and down my street.

Terrifying wouldn't even begin to explain it when a huge black dog with glistening red eyes bared its fangs and leapt at me.

I had grabbed a stick and jammed it into the thing's eye. It burst into dust. That was the day I packed my bags and ran as far away as I could. Sleeping anywhere I could, eating whatever I could find, battling the monsters I couldn't avoid. Dreaming, always nightmares, of finding my twin and my mother.

The day those vampire ladies cornered me and I bloody beat them all, lying there, almost dead, a winged van parked in front of me. A man with an aura around him, with dark brown curls and impish smile, picked me up and put me in the back of his van. On the way there, I was given the most delicious drink.

My wounds closed.

He dropped me in front of a gate and said, "Find the Aphrodite cabin's leader." Then he left.

I looked to the Hephaestus cabin. I remembered building something…wait, what? Building what? What was I thinking two seconds ago?  
I hesitated and started down the hill.

* * *

**100 reviews! Thank you all so much, this has now become my most popular story, and you're all just so wonderful and I love you all.**

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	17. I'm LeaAren't I?

**Lea's POV:**

I woke up screaming. Nico's hand squeezed mine and I blinked the residue of the nightmares out of my eyes. "What-what happened?"

"We wanted to refresh your memory," said a blonde girl. Annabeth? "You asked us to do it; you said you were a bit fazed."

"Did I?" I mumbled. "Well, I sure as heck had good memory lubrication then." I looked up to Nico. "Hey, Neeks. How did I sleep this time?"

He cracked a thin smile. "A lot of thrashing. Your hair burst on fire more than once. Some screaming."

I winced. "Horror movie worthy?"

"Yup."

I laughed and rolled out of bed, landing on my feet. I stretched. "It was a nice nap though, if you ignore the dreams. Is it lunch time? I'm starving."  
He nodded and Annabeth gave a pointed look to him. He just grit his teeth and gave her a curt nod. What was that about?

"We were going?" I asked him, walking out the door. The brisk September air swirled around me. "Chilly."

"You're a walking furnace, don't talk about chilly," he complained. "For people who are eighty degrees Fahrenheit like me, it's not fair."

"But this'll be the temperature of your body so it won't feel much different," I pointed out. We bantered back and forth like that until we got to the dining pavilion.

It was almost empty, most people had already eaten and left, but there was just enough time to snarf down a PB&J. Nico had a grilled cheese, which I was surprised by.

"Nico, you're eating," I exclaimed.

He shrugged. "All that food from breakfast stretched my stomach out. I'm eating."

I almost cried. "I'm so proud of myself for forcing you to eat! See, violence is always the answer. Anyhow, I need your help."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "My help? For what?"

I shrugged. "Well, demigod weapons are used from specialized ores, such as Imperial Gold. Celestial Bronze, or Stygian Iron, right?"

He hesitated before nodding. "Right."

I smiled primly and wiped my mouth on a napkin. "Well, my poorly watered friend, I want to make a…special type of weapon. And I want all three of those metals. Celestial Bronze, no problem. Stygian Iron and Imperial Gold, however…"

"How much do you need?" he moaned, massaging his temples as if preparing for a major headache.

"Just about twenty grams each," I said.

Nico looked surprised. "Just twenty grams each? What are you planning on doing, making tiny swords for guinea pigs?"

I did my customary puppy dog eyes. "Please, Neeks?"

He pushed me away. "Stop looking at me like that! Fine."

"Yay!" I squealed, jumping to my feet and clapping my hands. "Love you. Meet me at the forges with the stuff when you're ready, 'kay?"

I three my plate up. A harpy swooped down and caught it like a dog and a Frisbee before I could make it out of the dining pavilion. Someone put a hand out to stop me.

It was a brown-haired boy with an impish smile around my age. "Hey, Lea, you didn't forget about our date, did you?"

It was…Connor, I think it was? I had a vague memory of him asking me out and me… What did I do after that? "Uh…yeah! Of course I didn't. Pick me up in front of the Hephaestus cabin around 6 o'clock tomorrow. It _was _Friday, right?"

His eyebrows shot up like rockets. "What?"

"Uh…"

"How come you're _not _killing me?" he asked scratching the back of his neck. "This is a trick, isn't it?"

I blinked. "Um, no. What are you talking about? You asked me on the date, I said yes…"

Connor rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, L—"

Suddenly, out of the shadows leapt a Nico who tackled him and forced him to the ground. He snarled something quickly into his ear quickly. I saw Connor's eyes grow huge and then squint with disbelief and then grow huge again. What was going on?

"Uh, yeah, sure, tomorrow at six it is. Bye, Lea," he managed to choke out before squirming out of Nico's grip and running as fast as he could to the Hermes cabin. Even from that far away, I could hear him scream, "TRAVIS! TRAVIS!" as he pummeled the door.

"What was that?" I asked Nico as I narrowed my eyes. "You know something I don't."

"No I don't," Nico said in monotone.

I rolled my eyes. "That is such a terrible poker face, Neeks. Come on, tell me!"

He hesitated. "I can't. I'll go get your ores." Then Nico sank into my very own shadow and disappeared. I moaned.

I trudged to my forge and took out some things from my tool belt I found in Leo's little underground cave. I shoved my fingers into the fire and enjoyed the tingling sensation. Then I brought them out and bended some steel.

I brought out a sharpening stone and made four deadly sharp, long, thin blades. Soon, I had made scissors with 1-foot long blades. I sharpened them over and over again.

I brought one up and licked the edge before smiling. I loved scissors. They were so easy to use. I remembered grabbing scissors when I was eight at the Arts & Crafts center to stab my teacher who had grown a tail.

So scissors and I went really far back. People called me sadistic. I always thought it was familiar how adults told us not to run with scissors. If they saw the things I had done with them…

"Here you go," someone whispered into my ear, puffing cold air.

I yelped and whirled around. Nico's cheeks had slashes on them. Instead of blood leaking out came shadows. He looked mildly amused. "Scissors? What are we, in grade school?"

"Nico, about what you said to Connor," I began.

He dropped the tiny ores onto the table and left before I could needle him anymore. I growled a little before picking them up.

Five minutes later, I had all the ores mixed up, liquid and boiling, in the forge. I coated my scissor blades with it and set them to dry before sitting back, content. The ultimate weapons would be ready soon.

So my mind wandered to "the Secret." Wait a second, there was no way just Annabeth and Nico could be sharing a secret. It must be the whole group of Leo's friends. Time to go to the weak link: Percy.

If it was just Leo's friends, it might have been about Nico.

_Nothing _was going to happen to my twin as long as I breathed. I grabbed the scissors, saw them molded enough to use, and ran out the forge doors.

* * *

I jogged to the Poseidon cabin and knocked on the door. "Ariel!"

He opened the door, hair wet and shirt damp at the collar. He had just gone swimming, apparently. "Hey, Lea. What's up?"

I narrowed my eyes. He called me Lea. But…maybe he just did that now. "Hey, Ariel. Can I ask you a question?"  
"Shoot."

I shifted my weight. "Uh, well, do you know where Leo is?"

"He went away for a month to get spare parts for Festus, didn't he?" Percy said with a shrug.

I couldn't help but look shocked. "But, how did you—?"

"Hey, Lea," Annabeth said as she came from the inside to the doorway and put her hands on Percy's shoulders. "What's up?"

I scowled. Annabeth had been here first. Who else could I ask? There was Pipe-Pipe and Blondie. Hazelnut and Frankie too, I think they were touring the pegasi stables. Then the blonde devil smiled.

"I talked to the others," she said simply. "There are some things you just can and can't know, okay? You…you'll find out soon enough."

I glared at her. "Fine. I'm going then, seeing as there's nothing left for me."

I whirled around and stomped off straight into the woods where I kicked a tree and then hopped around on one foot, holding the other and wincing. Hot angry lava boiled in my stomach. I grabbed a tree and dug my fingers into the bark.

Fire raced up its sides.

"STOP IT!" a dryad screamed as she poked her body out of the tree. She took out a silky green blanket and beat the flames out.

I stepped back, instantly sorry. "S-Sorry. I didn't…I forgot—"

"Of course you did," she hissed. "This is the second time you've set one of my tree on fire!" She made a gesture that was probably very foul in the dryad language.

"Second time?" I said, confused.

She sniffed. "Of course. You've turned into a girl and had your memory changed since then."

I stumbled back and caught my leg on a root and toppled back. "W-What? What did you just say?" Of course Annabeth never thought a dryad would have known. I just stumbled upon this on my pure dumb luck.

She scoffed and made an indignant noise in her throat, blue eyes flashing. "Some time ago, you were a boy. I heard that huge tussle a few more trees down. Those boys threw in a potion, didn't they? Turned you into a girl and rearranged your memory."

I sat down dumbly as she sank back into her tree. What? They…I had my memory rearranged? I was a boy before? I was…Leo?

"No…" I whispered.

My entire life was a lie. The very reason I was still alive, searching for my twin brother, gone…

"NO!" I screamed, tangling my fingers into my hair and drawing my knees in closer.


	18. Poison Tastes Terrible

I rocked back and forth, crying into my knees. Someone put his arms around me and I seemed to bend in space and time. Suddenly, I was in the Hades cabin, on the bed. Nico grunted and fell back, exhausted.

"You found out?" he murmured.

I tried to muffle my sobs but there was nothing that could mask the sound of my shattering heart. "It's all a l-l-lie?"

He didn't reply and just breathed in and out, trying to gather his energy to sit up. I wrapped my arms around my knees and drew myself in a little ball, rocking back and forth. It calmed me, the rhythm.

"Why…are you so affected?" Nico said, panting.

I wiped my tears. "Don't you have any idea how this would feel? My entire _life _was just all made up. I can't _ever _meet Leo, because…he's _me_."

"Don't be so dramatic."

I whipped out my scissors, blind with tears. "You should _shut up!_"

He didn't look very impressed. That was why he was so surprised when the blade nicked his cheek. Then the pain kicked in.

"Gah!" he screamed, slapping his hand over the wound and drawing away. He brought it away, covered in blood. "What in—"

I refused to feel guilty and stomped my mental feet over the feeling to lean down and apologize before nursing him. "These scissors are deadly weapons, you're lucky you just got away with a cut, you zombie."

He glared at me coldly and I sat down with a shaky sigh. "I'm sorry. I'm just…so _confused_ that—"

He stiffened. "Magic."

Then Nico grabbed me by my overall straps and threw me away to the opposite side of the room and dived after me. An explosion shook the entire cabin before the front wall was demolished. Pieces flew.

"Ah, you two are survivors, then," a beautiful feminine voice hissed. "Acquainted with Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase, no doubt. That is a sin worth being tortured for."

From the smoke appeared a woman with long black hair and flashing green eyes. She was beautiful, no doubt about it. Pure white skin, lush body, plump, naturally pink lips, she had the works. Instantly jealous reflex, go.

"What do you want?" Nico growled, taking out his sword.

She cackled with joy. "Why, to destroy those who had defeated the Earth Mother. And what better way to see which demigods than to put a spell on any of those who have not been to the Ancient Lands?"

"What?" I crowed.

The lady turned to me and her lips curled into a sneer. "Hmmm, Leo Valdez, most unfortunate. Yes, petty demigod. I have put a curse on this camp. All of demigods who have not been to the Ancient Lands were frozen in time! Those who have made a direct contribution to the defeat…I wish to defeat them _myself_."

"What _you _need is anger management," I said, struggling to my feet. "Who are you anyway?"

"We don't need to know that," Nico snapped. "You can't hurt me, my body is made of shadows."

Her laugh pierced the air as she snapped her fingers. The air in front of Nico exploded in front of his face and he fell backwards, nose bleeding. It looked as though it hurt a lot more.

"My magic centers not on the body, but on the pain receptors!"

She snapped her fingers and the air next to me exploded. I gave a strangled cry as I was flung into the wall. I heard a few things break, namely my pride. Nico struggled up and tried to get to my side and help me up.

"I am the sorceress, the enchantress, the goddess of mystics and potions, _Circe_!" she shrieked. "Kneel before me and be honored to die this way! You are merely number 9, Valdez."

"What?" I choked out.

From her hands appeared a vial of blue liquid. She chucked it at me and I luckily ducked quickly enough to have the stuff shatter against the wall. It ate away at the plaster and stone like it was nothing and burned into the ground.

I've always wanted a professional exfoliation, but not this!

"My list of demigods to kill," she said. "Number 9, Leo Valdez. Number 8, Hazel Levesque, a poor excuse for a sorceress. Number 7, Frank Zhang. Number 6, Jason Grace. Number 5, Piper McLean, for killing my niece. Number 4, Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, for delivering the Athena Parthenos and uniting the demigods! Number 3, you, Nico di Angelo."

Nico gave a strangled yell and charged her with his sword. Circe snapped her fingers and he was thrown against the wall like me. He moaned as he stirred in the rubble. From the hole in the wall, I could see Clarisse still in the midst of yelling at a poor camper. Completely frozen in place.

"Number 2," she continued, "Annabeth Chase. Number 1, therefore, is—"

Nico looked up, face paler than usual. How would I know usual? I thought venomously.

"—Percy Jackson."

Suddenly, clouds covered the sun. Nico stood up slowly, swaying as though he was drunk, eyes empty and pupils the size of pin holes. "What?"

"Neeks, calm down," I whispered.

"This witch is after Percy," Nico murmured, stepping forward. "How can I…possibly…calm down!" He screeched the last words as he slammed his blade into the ground.

Zombies and spirits poured out of the ground like some Halloween geyser of sorts. It spurted undead things with speed to make Hades proud. They wouldn't stop as Nico roared at the top of his lungs.

"Filthy, dirty!" Circe screamed with happiness as she slammed vial after the vial onto the ground. The undead were destroyed before they got near her. "You'll have to do better!"

"I will NEVER forgive you!" he screamed.

She cackled. "You cannot defeat me! I have killed eons of heroes worthier of you! You are just one!"

"No he's not, because we're going to be helping him," someone said from behind us.

We all looked. The other six were there. Frank had drawn his weapon, Hazel's hands were clouded with Mist, and Annabeth's drakon bone sword glinted threateningly. Jason's hands sparked, Piper stood next to him, Katoptris gripped. Percy stood at the head and uncapped Riptide.

"Nice to meet you Circe, but I'm not really in a spa mood," he yelled. They all charged her.

The enchantress drew back, screaming, as they all attacked her. I watched them, amazed. Leo's friends were such good fighters.

Not Leo's friends, I remembered. Mine. Leo doesn't really exist.

I blinked my tears away. Circe spotted me and swooped down, grabbing me by my throat. She took out one more vial, an ugly black one, and shoved one end into my mouth, forcing me to drink it all.

"No!" they all screamed. Percy leaped forward with Riptide but she dropped me and floated away.

"We will meet again!" she shrieked. "But worry about your friend. She's had the worst of poisons!"

I convulsed on the ground, the inky black spots growing in my vision. I could hardly feel Nico's arms around me as I passed out.

* * *

**HAPPY PERCY JACKSON'S BIRTHDAY AND PERCABETH ANNIVERSARY! I might post one more time.**


	19. A Poisoned Mind

**Nico's POV:**

I wrung my trembling fingers as all of the Apollo kids worked their medicines on Lea. She lay there, motionless, eyes closed and hands folded over her chest as though she was dead and about to be buried. After seeing her toss and turn like mad, the vision that she was dead only increased at her stillness.

"I should have jumped in front of her, I should have saved her!" Piper sobbed hysterically to Jason.

"Piper, it wasn't your fault," he managed to choke out. "You have to calm down."

"If she dies, it'll be my entire fault, Jason!" she screeched, grabbing the front of Grace's shirt. "Her blood will be on my hands, I was closest to her!"

"No," I said. They jumped, obviously not knowing I had been there. "It was my fault. Lea…I could have saved her. I don't…I was a fool."

"No, we all know it was me," Percy said, voice cracking. His head was on Annabeth's shoulders. "I was there. Right there. If I just had jumped…"

Surprisingly, the next person to stand was Frank. He looked grim. "You guys aren't helping her with your blame game. It was none of your faults. We just have to pray to the gods that she lives."

"Well?" I asked one of the Apollo kids. "How is she?"

He looked worried. "Surprisingly, the poison isn't in her heart, bloodstream, or stomach area. It seemed to have…disappeared. Evaporated. She's fine, she's just asleep."

"No she's not!" I said. I didn't notice until he began whimpering I had been yelling. "If she was asleep, she would be moving! She's dead, why don't you just say it?!"

"Nico," Hazel said softly, putting her hands on my shoulders. "She's not dead. If you calmed down a bit, you would be able to feel her life force. It's there, just weak."

I sat down and wrung my hands a bit more. Will Solace cleared his throat. "I recommend you guys get her to sleep. Somewhere isolated."

"The Leo Cave," I said immediately. "I can sleep there too. My cabin's in ruins. Frank and Hazel have to stay there too anyways."

He nodded. "Fine. Get her there."

I nodded and dropped to my knees to pick her up bridal style before shifting her so she was on my back. I bit my lip. She felt…odd, strange. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I looked over my shoulder where her pale limp hand was. Over it, I could make out the heads of my friends. "Bye, guys."

"Bye," they said sadly. We drifted away.

I could feel her heart beating quietly on my back as I walked. Frank and Hazel held hands and kept on glancing at me and Lea. We didn't say a word. The sun was kissing the horizon in the distance. The dinner bells rung but I wasn't hungry.

_You have to eat! _Lea's angry voice rang in my head.

I shook my head.

_You ungrateful little zombie_, I heard her voice growl.

I almost laughed. I went into the Hephaestus cabin. A little eight-year old looked up and his eyes grew wide before he stepped away so I could pass. I gestured for Hazel and Frank to follow. I laid her on the bed and clicked a button.

The bed-elevator spiraled down with an almost silent hiss. The Leo Cave seemed the same as I had left it except the sleeping bags were gone save for Hazel's and Frank's.

"Maybe we should go to bed," Hazel said silently.

I nodded numbly. She kissed my cheek and Frank patted my shoulder before they split their ways and unrolled their sleeping bags at the opposite sides of the room. I laid Lea down and put her hands on her side.

Lea looked so…unlike herself just lying there. I didn't want to see her. So I grabbed her hand and shadow traveled five meters away into the nook under the work table. I could see in the dark if I tried to, so I knew where to put her.

I stared at her face for a while before putting a hand on her forehead. It felt fine, almost cool to the touch. That was normal, wasn't it?

I gasped as I realized it wasn't. If it was cool to my touch, it must have been around 75 degrees or something. She was usually 104, so that was a huge drop. She would be _freezing_.

"Lea, please wake up," I begged her.

Of course she didn't.

I screwed my eyes shut and tucked her into her orange nylon sleeping bag before stepping away into my corner. After a moment's consideration, I took off my aviator's jacket and put it on her before wrapping my arms around myself.

The nightmares were waiting at bay to strike without her comforting pillow.

* * *

**Lea's POV:**

I opened my eyes. I sat up. There was a jacket around me. Nico's.

I tapped the door. It slid open. I walked out, the lights on dimly. I looked back and Nico was there, sleeping. Hazel was on the opposite wall, Frank on another. Everything seemed gray to me. And for an odder reason, I didn't care. Life was meaningless, after all.

I sat at a table and didn't move, closing my eyes and staying stock still like a statue for an hour until the others woke up.

The poison I drank last night had not killed me. It had done much worse. I had lost my will to live. It had given birth to an evil voice in my head.

_What's the point of living? _It asked softly, sounding horrifically like my own.

"I have to wait for my brother," I said quietly, voice in monotone and bland to my ears.

_The brother that does not exist. Yes, yes, the one you will never meet, the one who was the birth of all your lives, the invisible being that is you_, it murmured. _Wouldn't it be so much easier to just disappear while you can and avoid future heartbreak?_

"My friends will help me swim."

_The friends that talked cruelly behind your back. They will pull you down and laugh as you drown in your tears. If you end your life, you will not hear their laughter. It will be better._

I stayed silent and stared at my hands. Coldness was in my bones. My heart was still, beating yes, but feeling nothing. I was slowly dying, little by little, murdered by my own mine.

"Lea?" someone murmured. Nico came out of the nook and blinked the sleep out of his eyes. "Lea! You're okay!"

Nico, I thought. Looking at him gave some color into my sight, but not much.

I wanted to laugh, grab his hand, and sit him down. I wanted to hear his pain, his woes, and help him through it. I wanted to help him swim and be there for him when he needed me to.

I wanted to hold his face in my hands, have his head on my lap, brush the hair out of his eyes. I wanted to be able to speak to him. I wanted to look into his black eyes, the only thing that really showed the pain he was going through.

But no.

My eyes looked right through him. My hands hung limp at my sides. My mouth stayed shut.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to beat my fists on the ground, stomp, set fire on things, scream at the sky.

But no.

I just sat there.

Nico could help me, he was my friend, I was sure of this, even if my memory was gone. He kneeled and looked at me, concerned. "Are you okay?"

Nico, grab my hand, I begged mentally, on my knees.

_He will not help_, the voice murmured.

He reached forward and I cheered. The voice laughed. His fingers touched mine. They laced through. I sat there, unmoving.

Nico's cold skin would usually be the highlight of my day, almost hissing when touching with my heat. But now, it was like touching air, only thicker. No spark, no hiss. Nothing.

_I only tell you the truth, _the voice whispered.

I could do nothing. I was losing against my own mind.


	20. The Angel is Beautiful

**Nico's POV:**

"Something's wrong!" I said desperately to Will Solace.

Lea was sitting in the sick bay, eyes empty and back hunched. It was like someone had taken a stick and had literally beaten the life out of her. She was so still, it was as if she was nothing but a stone statue.

Will stopped spouting incants that did nothing whatsoever and wiped his forehead. His eyes were grim. "I don't know what's wrong with her. She's not dying, there's no poison in her I can detect, it's like this is happening out of nowhere."

Piper burst into the room and launched herself at Lea, wrapping her arms around her. "LEA! I heard from Hazel you went to the infirmary, what's wrong?"

Lea didn't say a word, as usual. I didn't know if it was just me or what, but I felt as though I could hear her mind, trying to open her mouth.

"She's so cold," Piper said heartbrokenly as she put a hand on her forehead.

Then Lea raised her head and spoke. "I'm okay."

I was shocked. But something was wrong with her voice. It was monotone, not a single bit of her sarcasm or giggle. It was like hearing an automaton speak. I curled my fingers into a fist and looked down, furious at something I couldn't quite name.

"I have a date with Connor today," she said, standing up. "I'm going to go early."

"I don't think you can stand up yet," Will began, putting a hand out.

Lea shook her head. "I have to go."

Piper swallowed. "Let her go, Will, maybe getting out of camp might help her a bit. Lea, where do you want to go? Should I go with you and Connor?"

"No," she said softly. I _hated _that voice. "I have to go alone. I want to go to New York."

Will bit his lip. "That's quite a ways from here. I don't think you can manage that far, maybe you should go for the beach or—"

"No, let her go." I was surprised to realize that I was the one speaking.

Will glanced at me before nodding before stepping aside. Lea walked out of the infirmary. I turned to Piper. "Follow her, no matter what she says. I have a bad feeling."

"What?" she said. "O-Okay."

Piper took in a deep breath and followed Lea out. I sat down on one of the beds and put my head in my hands before taking in a deep breath.

"How long has it been?" Will Solace asked as he packed up his things.

I looked up. "How long has what been?"

"Since you liked Lea?"

I don't know what made me do it but I drew my sword and pressed the point to Will's Adam's apple. "I do _not _like Valdez. Maybe you'll stop saying stupid things if I chop your tongue out."

Will Solace raised a blonde eyebrow. "You don't?"

I opened my mouth but something was burning in my throat, my stomach was trying into knots. I whirled around and stomped out of the infirmary, furious. But why was I so angry? Why?

I kept on asking myself this as I marched to my cabin which was in ruins. I sat on the grass and watched the construction from afar. Some of the pegasi and their riders were trying to put some of the black pillars up.

I thought back. Whenever I saw Lea, my cold heart melted a bit. I've never felt more comfortable than simply being at her side, like she was a portable home. She made my day brighter and I tried to convince her to spend every moment of the day with me.

I haven't felt like that since P…

My sword clattered from my hand onto the ground. Unholy Styx. I liked Lea.

* * *

**Piper's POV:**

I followed Lea and Connor as they strolled down the streets of Manhattan from a bit away. After giving the news, Lea had changed into a white shirt and black jeans. She tied her hair back with a black scrunchie.

I've never been so ruined at the sight of a beautiful pair of black jeans. Lea only wore overalls, seeing her wearing something else was strange, like someone had forced her to change. I didn't want Lea or Leo to change.

After breakfast, they had gotten on an SUV driven by Argus. Chiron was very lenient, seeing as Lea had gotten poisoned yesterday when he was stuck frozen in time, in the middle of archery practice.

I hitched a ride in the back after charmspeaking Argus just a bit. Connor was trying to get her to laugh but Lea just stared out the window, arms around herself as if she was going to fall to pieces. After about an hour, Connor shut up and looked out the opposite window awkwardly.

Now they were walking down the streets, looking at the electric boards. It was only after I went ten blocks I realized that Lea seemed to be the one leading the most. Connor was subconsciously following her.

"Now where could you be heading, Lea?" I murmured.

I went behind a bush and spied on them as they ate lunch. I posed as a mannequin when Connor visited Nintendo World. I wore a hat and a pair of sunglasses when Connor went to M&M world. Lea seemed to be just tolerating him.

Baiting him, giving him what he wanted, so he would keep on following her.

It was when the sun began to set something happened.

"It's getting late, maybe we should go back, Lea," Connor said, stretching and yawning.

"Go back," Lea echoed. "You should go back, Connor."

"No, we both have to go," he said slowly, as if she was dumb.

She drew herself up and said, "No. I have to stay."

Then Lea grabbed a wrench from her tool belt and smacked him on the head with it. Connor crumpled to the ground.

"LEA!" I screamed, shooting up.

She whirled around and met my eyes. Lea looked broken, almost dead, her eyes were sunken and her mouth was chapped. She bought up the wrench like she was about to hit me next.

"No," she muttered through gritted teeth and shakily forced herself to drop it.

"What are you doing?" I asked hysterically. "That is _not _the proper way to dump someone!"

She shook, trembled, and then bolted down the street with incredible speed like something was helping her. But Lea was moving with jerky, robotic movements as if she was trying to stop herself.

"Lea!"

But she was gone.

I considered following her but the sun was setting and I couldn't just let Connor lie there unconscious, even if the Demeter cabin would have given me a hundred drachmas of thanks for doing so.

So I grabbed him and pulled him down the street before hailing a taxi.

"Hi, could you get this boy to Long Island Sound [insert address] for free?" I asked him, batting my eyelashes and pushing the charmspeak. "I would be _so _grateful."

"Uh, of course," the taxi driver murmured, eyes zoning out. I slammed the door shut and ran after Lea.

I stopped at a fountain. The last rays of the sun were making the water cast rainbows. I grabbed a drachma from my back pocket and chucked it in.

"Nico di Angelo!" I just about screamed.

He appeared in the shimmery light. His face was stricken as if he was already aware of what was going on. "Piper, what's happening?"

I told him. Nico's eyes grew huge. "Where is she?!"

I looked around to where Lea had disappeared and saw myself looking at the spire of the Empire State building. "She's heading to the Empire State building!"

He turned even paler. "I'll be there. Piper, you _have to catch her!_"

I nodded dumbly, tears pricking my eyes for some reason. "I will! Come quickly!"

I slashed my hand through the Iris Message and ran as fast as I could down the street Lea had gone down. I was shaking for some reason, I think it was because of the intensity in Nico's voice. What was Lea going to do?

* * *

**Nico's POV:**

She wouldn't.

I tried to make my heart calm down but it wouldn't. I shut my eyes and sank into the shadows.

* * *

**Lea's POV:**

The voice was taking over. It made me move my body even though I didn't want to. It made me whack Connor out of commission. When it aimed for Pipe-Pipe, I forced my hand to drop it. But nothing helped in making me slow down to the Empire State Building. It would be closing around now.

_Yes, the doors were closed, _the voice said. _Much more convenient, is it not?_

I slapped my hand over the door and focused against my will. The locks disabled. They clattered to the ground. I opened the door and sneaked inside.

_Into the elevator, _the voice commanded.

"Yes," I murmured.

My legs lifted themselves and walked to the steel doors that opened with a touch of my hands. I slapped the highest floor. I wanted to go to the observation deck.

I couldn't hear. I couldn't feel. Everything was gray. I was losing my will. It was like my soul was destroyed and all I could do was exist. I didn't want to live like this. Dying would be easier.

STOP THINKING LIKE THAT, LEA!

But the sweet prospect of death would not boot out of my mind. I reached the observation deck.

_Remove your shoes_, the voice whispered. _Stand on the stone._

I did so. I looked down and saw little specks moving, cars, no doubt. Someone was pounding on the doors with all her might. Pipe-Pipe.

_Wave good-bye to the gods, _the voice said.

I looked up to the blue sky and waved.

* * *

**On Olympus:**

"LET ME GO!" Hephaestus screamed.

"We mustn't mess with the lives of mortals, husband!" Aphrodite cried although she was crying.

"This is not a regular mortal life, it was that potion!" he roared.

Ares was restraining Hephaestus very much against his will.

"We bid a great hero goodbye," Zeus rumbled. "We pray she receives Elysium."

They all ducked their heads except for Hephaestus who raised his head to the ceiling and bellowed with fury. The ceiling shook.

* * *

**Lea's POV:**

I could feel vibrations coming from the sky. Thunder.

_Very good_, the voice murmured. _Now you know what you must do_.

My friends…

_I promise sweet relief from those traitors._

My brother…

_A dream, merely a dream._

Life…

_Would end anyway_

I closed my eyes and pitched myself forward. Piper's screams reached me. Thunder rumbled. Someone wrapped his arms around me as I fell.

I looked up. An angel was going to rescue me from this cruel world. The voice cackled until it faded and was gone.

The angel melted into the shadows with me.

* * *

I opened my eyes and found myself safely on the ground. Then the angel slapped me in the face, hard. I blinked the daze from my eyes and saw the angel was actually Nico. His eyes were bloodshot as though he had been crying.

"WHAT IN HADES WERE YOU THINKING?!" he screamed. "How could you…just…_coward!_"

"There is nothing left to live for," I whispered.

Then he leaned in and his lips met mine. A spark went off between our lips. Something stirred in my dense heart. His lips became colder and colder.

Nico tastes like chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds, I thought in shock.

* * *

**Nico's POV:**

Her lips became hotter and hotter until they were almost burning. She tasted like cinnamon apples. Her arms went around my shoulders and I drew her in closer.

I opened my eyes and saw her staring straight at me, eyes finally filled with their normal warm brown color and glistening.

* * *

**Piper's POV:**

I watched the two of them, jaw dropped.

* * *

**On Olympus:**

"Well, we can all agree that we were not expecting that," Hera said, eyes huge.

* * *

**Lea's POV:**

We broke away and just stared at each other a bit before he glared at me and said, "Is that enough to live for now?"

I nodded and smiled, tears trickling down my cheeks. "You."

I kissed him again.


	21. Solved Puzzle Broken Up Again

**What? It's been…SIX DAYS? Sorry! Really sorry! I was away at this wilderness school orientation thing and I was busy and [insert lame excuses.] So yes, I do deserve all those death threats.**

**Welcome to some Lea/Nico fluff!**

* * *

**On Olympus:**

Aphrodite was ROTFF. Rolling On the Floor Fangirling (I'm planning on making that a real thing). That kiss was just _too _cute! They were both shattered little hearts. That was perfect! Just so perfect!

Hephaestus was stock still. So were most of the gods save for Artemis (who was retching over the side of her silver chair), Hermes (who was taking blackmail pictures), and Apollo (who was ROTFL.)

* * *

**Lea's POV**:

I broke away, panting, my arms still around Nico's neck. He just stared at me with a lopsided half-smile on his face as if he had no idea what just happened but had a general feeling that it was good.

"You goof," I giggled, embarrassed, as I pulled away. "So…are we a thing now?"

He shrugged nervously. "Maybe. I guess."

"MAYBE?!" Piper shrieked. I winced. "OH MY GODS, THAT KISS WAS JUST TOO CUTE! You guys are both shattered little hearts. That was perfect! Just so perfect!"

"Pipe-Pipe, your inner Aphrodite," I warned with a giggle before lacing my fingers with Nico's. "And it's still a maybe."

I actually just said that to troll her. The pulsing chill that came from Nico's hand and cooled down mine but still made my blood pound; you can't say that that's a maybe. He squeezed my hand and I knew he was thinking the same thing.

Piper looked between Nico and me and I knew her Aphrodite senses were going nuts. She gave me a huge smile and two thumbs-up before saying, "I'll, uh, go call Argus to come and pick us up. You two should…talk."

Then she sprinted down the street, obviously to Iris Message someone and blab. I should have been uncomfortable with that I was kinda self-conscious, but how could I when all I wanted to do was climb the Empire State Building again and scream at the top of my lungs, "NICO DI ANGELO KISSED ME!" so the campers back at Half-Blood could hear?

We glanced at each other at the same time and held each other's gaze for a second too long. The blood pounded in my ears as my face turned cherry red. He was kinda pink, the faintish blush ever. I _really _didn't like the butterflies it put in my stomach.

Nico let go of my hand and swore. "Furies of Tartarus."

I was suddenlyworried. "What?"

He walked backwards until he hit the Empire State Building's front door and slid down in exhaustion. Neeks looked like he was trying to remember his own name. "Oh no. Lea, I think I might _actually _be in love with you."

"Should I be embarrassed you said oh no at the beginning of that sentence?" I asked with a raised eyebrow, slowly getting the urge to slap the next stranger who walked down the street.

He grimaced. "The _worst _thing you could have done is fall in love with a son of Hades. _Hades_."

I rolled my eyes. "Aw, Neeks, don't be—"

Suddenly, a freezing cold sensation froze my bones. I fell to my knees and took in a pained, shuttering breath like shards of ice in my lungs. Nico's arms were around me in a second.

"Oh my gods," I gasped. "I j-j-jumped, I actually j-j-j—" I couldn't finish the sentence.

Neeks murmured soft words I couldn't understand into my ears. But my heart was going out of control. I was shaking so hard, I was afraid I would tear off my own arm or something. I began sobbing into his shirt. People were staring but I didn't care.

"I _jumped_, Nico," I wailed. "Why did I-?" Another sound of a walrus dying exploded from my mouth. "I don't k-know, I just—I…" I cried. I was shaking harder and harder until I was pretty sure the only thing keeping me physically and emotionally together was Nico.

"You're okay now," he whispered. "I'm here. I'll always be with you. I love you, Lea Valdez."

I could finally stop stuttering but the shaking continued. My mind began to grow fuzzy and numb. Then I realized that I was laughing. Was this how it felt like to go into hysterics?

Then his lips found mine. My heart calmed down and began beating with his. But each pound was so intense, it _hurt_. Like an aching pain.

He broke away, blushing. "B-Better?"

"V-V-Very," I managed and snuggled into him a bit closer. "Nico…you jumped after me."

Neeks paused. "I guess I did, didn't I? You were worth every inch I fell."

And suddenly, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world to be in this guy's arms, son of Hades or no. I looked up at him and kissed him once, a quick one on the cheek. "T-Thank you."

He buried his nose into my hair and sighed. I snuggled in closer and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to focus on the sound of his breathing rather than the awful memory of the wind roaring in my ears.

Someone cleared her throat in front of us. We both looked up. Piper was grinning gleefully. "When I said talk, I meant talk, but this is good too!"

* * *

It's been two days since I jumped. Nico and I had been inseparable, walking to activities together, eating together, sleeping in the Lea Cave (I renamed it) together. The last part was a must. I couldn't close my eyes without having the most horrible memories of my past or reliving the fall over and over again, sometimes Neeks not there to save me.

I was used to it though. I've never had a happy dream. A dreamless sleep was all I was asking for.

I'd sit in my chair, drawing plans for new random things I wanted to build, and Nico would be right behind me fiddling with my hair or whatever. I knew we were the biggest talk of camp, Leo Valdez's twin sister going out with the creepy Goth son of Hades.

Screw them.

I loved Nico.

It was hard to explain it. Piper was right. We were two shattered hearts. But instead of _shattered_, I liked to think my heart was a puzzle that had become scrambled over the years. Then some pieces went missing. And then Neeks were those missing puzzle pieces.

No one told me the truth about Leo except him. I got the basics. I had been given new memories to avoid going mad. I should have been helpful, but sometimes, remembering that I could never meet my brother _ruined _me at night.

Nico would be there with his cold arms and comforting words.

I know about the potion to cure me, I know that once I become Leo; I will remember nothing about being Lea. I knew that meant I'd forget Neeks, but he hasn't asked if I would take the potion or not.

The stress was gnawing at my stomach.

It was on the second day he asked. We were walking back from lunch, strolling a bit, lollygagging hand in hand.

"Lea," he said softly. "I have to ask you something. I want to know…so I can prepare myself if you leave me."

My heart plummets to my feet. I know what's coming. "Yeah?"

He snapped his fingers and a small bench of bones erupt from the ground. I sit down next to him and he looks down at his lap, playing with our fingers.

"Are you going to change back into Leo?" Neeks asked quietly.

I gazed down the hill. The sun was almost kissing the hills in the distance but not quite. The days were getting shorter and shorter like my life. "I'm so sorry, Neeks. Yeah, I am."

His breathing got quicker ever so slightly, only the person who had spent the last two nights falling asleep to the sound of his breathing could have told the difference. "Oh."

My hands shook as I tried to choke back the tears but one rebellious one trickled down. Nico wiped it and gave me a pained smile that hurt more than a stab to the heart. "It's okay, don't cry."

"I'm going to miss you so much," I choked out.

His hands squeezed mine. "Don't worry, because I won't miss you. Don't feel guilty."

I looked up. "What?"

"You heard me." Nico stood up quickly and gave me a fake lopsided smile. "I don't care go on and tear me apart, I don't care if you do. I knew it, I was prepared. Don't worry, Lea."

"Neeks stop quoting Cold Play and be honest with me," I said cautiously. This Fake Nico was shoving me to the edge. "I _love _you."

He shrugged. "You won't once you're Leo. I'm not trying to guilt you into staying yourself forever. I'm being honest."

"No, you're_ not_." I stood up angrily. "I still have more than two weeks left, let's spend it together." I stretched a hand out.

Nico pulled back like I was contagious. "No. I'd rather not. Just leave me alone."

I blinked back the tears. "Please, Neeks—"

"My name's Nico."

It hurt so badly. Let this agony end. "I-I can't live without you! It's been less than a week; you can't be breaking up with me already!"

"I'm just speeding up the process," he said with false cheer. "I'll see you around, Valdez."

Back to square one? Valdez? I grabbed him by his collar and forcefully kissed him. I was angry. I pulled back, knowing that I was probably red. "If you're going to break up with me, at least be Neeks! _Not _di Angelo."

I got his mask to crack. He put a hand to my cheek and as usual, his cold fingertips sent goose bumps all over my body. Neeks' voice cracked as he spoke. "After Bianca and Jackson…I can't lose someone else I love so much. It's going to kill me. Please understand, Lea."

"B-But we still have some time left…"

"The more time I spend with you, the worse it's going to hurt me!" I flinched. Nico's face softened. "I'm sorry. But this has to be a goodbye, Lea."

I put a hand to my mouth to hold in my sobs. I couldn't hurt him any more than I already had. "O-Okay. Bye, Nico."

He squeezed my hand once and stared into my eyes before turning around.

"Wait," I begged. "One more kiss."

Nico turned around again, pained. "Please, Lea—"

"They do that in Italy, don't they?" I asked forcefully. "They kiss each other goodbye!" I didn't look for confirmation; I leaned in and kissed his cheek.

I'd miss his pomegranate scent.

"Goodbye," he whispered into my ear and kissed my cheek. Then I leaned in to hug him but he was gone— nothing but shadow.

I resisted the urge to break down on the bench and wail. At least I had _some _dignity left. I stumbled and limped to the Aphrodite cabin and knocked once. The door opened immediately and there Pipe-Pipe was, already grave.

"I heard a heart break," she said with a sniffle. "Need a hug?"

I tackled myself into her arms and began to cry like a dam had broken loose behind my eyeballs. But she was too warm, unlike my Neeks. I was being suffocated by my own heat. I cried some more.

* * *

**On Olympus:**

"Noooooo!" Aphrodite wailed, blowing her nose into Ares's shoulder. "B-But they were perfect for each other! I had the perfect ship name! Valdangelo! Why, cruel Fates, why?!"

"Who are we talking about?" her boyfriend asked dumbly.


	22. We Need to Get Them Back Together--STAT

**Piper's POV:**

I marched into the dining pavilion two days after Lea's breakup. Hazel and Frank had left for New Rome but the others were all sitting together for lunch.

"We need to find Nico _now_," I said, exhausted. "I don't know how much more Lea can take!"

"What?" Percy asked, looking up from his burger. "Oh yeah, I heard Nico and Lea broke up. Where are they?"

"No idea where Death Boy is. Lea's isolated herself in Bunker 9."

Annabeth winced. "How heartbroken is she?"

I sniffled. "Let me revise my last sentence, she's isolated herself in Bunker 9 with a crate of pickles and spray cheese."

"Oh, poor girl, she's really taking it hard." Annabeth shook her head. "Time might heal her wounds. Seeing Nico might hurt her even more. What's to say he still likes her?"

"I'd agree with you, Annabeth Chase, had I not seen different."

I jumped. That voice…

Percy growled and stabbed his burger with a fork before turning around slowly. "Why are you here…?"

A man with a black cloak and oily black hair, paper white complexion, skeletal features, and fingers adorned with precious gems. Hades, it was Hades. (Lea would have appreciated that pun.)

"L-Lord Pl-Hades!" Jason gasped.

"Not a lord," Percy said with a frown.

Hades scowled. "If I was not here for the sake of my son, I would have condemned you to the Fields of Punishments, Perseus Jackson."

"Ditto."

"Why is no one else noticing?" Annabeth hissed under her breath.

"Mist," Hades replied. He clenched his teeth and snapped his fingers. A gold and silver throne burst from the ground and he sat down. "You must know what Nico is going through a hard time."

"_He _broke up with _Lea_," Piper said with another sniffle. Her new OTP had been flung to the ground, shattered.

"To avoid worse heartbreak in the future," he retorted.

"There is _no _way Nico is worse than Lea," Piper said. "Look."

She chucked a drachma at the Iris Cabin table's continuous rainbow and ducked her head, murmuring a short prayer to the goddess **(A/N: ugh, too…lazy… to search up…actual…prayer. Put it in the reviews! First one gets a shout-out.)**

Lea flickered into view, hair a mess and clothes completely mussed. She was sobbing over Festus's head with a wrench in her hand. She flapped her hand around on a table top and grabbed a random pickle before biting into it.

She chucked the wrench at a wall and screamed, "STUPID ORGANIC LIFE FORMS!" and then resumed crying.

"I'm not sure if that's the most disturbing, sad, or hilarious video I have ever seen," Jason said with a purse of his lips.

"That's nothing," Hades scoffed and snapped his fingers. A black obsidian circle around five feet in diameter came up from the earth. The surface clouded and Nico was there. "Here's a montage of my son's misery."

"You keep a montage of Nico's misery?" Percy said with disgust.

"No, Persephone watches this to laugh."

No one talked. It wasn't very shocking. The mist cleared to show Nico drawing pictures of Lea. Rather well. It was one of her laughing. Then he ripped it off the pad of drawing paper and walked into a room.

"Oi," Annabeth managed to choke out.

He tacked it onto a wall with about three million others. They all showed different aspects of her, laughing, pouting, crying, all kind of radiating a "Lea" feel.

Then the image changed to one of Nico carving Lea's name into the black wall of his bedroom with carved pictures of fire and roses. Then it changed to him holding a stuffed Lea doll with buttons for eyes and a stitched on smile. He was sleeping with it.

"They broke up two days ago," Percy said with a sigh. "That boy is productive."

"We need to get them back together," Piper said. "Like, now, or else Aphrodite is going to go schizoid along with me."

"Agreed," Hades said darkly. "But how?"

Annabeth grinned. "Connor!" she called sweetly.

Connor turned his head and saw her "sweet" face and jumped up before trying to bolt away. Travis wrapped his arms around him and turned to Annabeth with a raised eyebrow.

She tossed him a sack of money.

He brought him over to her.

"TRAVIS, YOU ARE DEAD TO ME!" he screeched.

"How would you like to try to make a son of Hades jealous?" Annabeth asked with a glint in her eyes that made Piper want to rescue the poor boy.

No one blamed him when Connor attempted another escape.

* * *

**Pfft, y'all thought I was actually going to keep Lea/Nico apart? Look, pigs are flying out my window! And no, Lea will not turn into Leo. Or will she? Or will something worse happen?**

**DEAL WITH IT!**

**Love you all, sorry I didn't post yesterday, I was so sick and dizzy, I couldn't read or write. Torture!**


	23. Not a Chapter

**Hey guys**

**Not a chapter, I'm sorry.**

**My Grandma died about two or three weeks ago and I haven't been able to push myself to write, or read, or anything. I'm going through a kinda hard time right now. I wouldn't even been posting this if so many of you wonderful people asked if I was okay or not. So I'm putting Lea on hold for a while. Please minimize the death threats? They aren't really funny anymore and not really heartwarming when people call me a mother fucker.**

**So yeah, thanks for understanding. I'm trying to push myself to write. But it may be a while. Love you all. Because this world really needs some more of that.**


	24. She Needs Me

"Okay, I get it, but why do I have to wear this?" he asked, tugging at the neck of his tuxedo with a grimace.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Keep up with the beat, Stoll. Here's the plan _one more time_. You attempt to sweep Lea off her feet which will inevitably fail, but it will catch his attention at least. We let loose a scorpion, which you'll attempt to fight off, Lea's going to be somewhat terrified, Nico comes in and saves both of your butts."

"But why the suit?" he yelled.

Piper flipped her hair. "Um, because you better look fabulous while doing it, or my mom's going to put a curse on you."

He hung his head. "No way I can get out of this?"

"I paid your brother."

"Selling people is illegal in most countries," he muttered. "Especially this one."

"Oh, go complain to a judge. 'My half-god brother sold me to my half-god friend to help convince a genderbent boy/girl into getting back together with the son of Hades,'" Percy said with a snort. "Trust me, I tried."

"Okay, but let's say I can't fight off the scorpion," he tried again. "What do I do then?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Isn't it obvious? We swoop down from the trees and save you, the plan fails, and we go with plan B."

"Plan B? I haven't been told about a plan B. What's Plan B?"

Hazel fanned herself. "You try to force a kiss onto Lea."

Connor turned to the side and stuck a finger down his throat in a gag-me sign.

"Ready?" Annabeth asked kindly.

"No."

"Too bad, because Hazel's getting Lea out of her hermit cave. Out you go!" and she shoved him out, just like that.

Lea stumbled into the clearing. Her eyes were red and her hair was a mess, but she still looked really good in her overalls. Connor struggled to wolf-whistle and yell, "GAAAAAAY!"

"What do you want?" she asked, sniffling. "I want more pickles. And what are you wearing?"

He almost laughed with exasperation. "Um, I was just wondering…"

**Nico's POV:**

My trembling hand drew one more picture of Lea. Gods, she was so gorgeous. _Stop it, Nico. It's impossible_. But I want to! _No_. Yes. _No_. Yes! _No_! YEEEES! _NOOOOOO_!

Suddenly, I heard something. My inner Piper suddenly began jumping down and Fangirling and probably would have slapped a metaphorically keyboard a few times. What was it? I tossed an obsidian drachma into a pool of grayed rainbows and whispered, "Lea Valdez, Camp Half-Blood."

Her beautiful face came into view and I choked down the urge to sob. She was so pretty. She was so pretty. _No_. Yes. _No_. Yes. _No_. Yes. _No_!  
"Um, I was just wondering…" I sat up. I knew that voice. It was Stoll #2. What was he doing with my girl?

_Your girl? More like ex-girl._

_Shut up._

"Will you go out with me?" he asked hastily.

I actually threw up a little in my mouth. Oh no he _didn't…_

"Excuse me?" she asked. Oh, her voice just made me feel like I'd just eaten some green tea with wheat germ. Out of the world and slightly hyper.

"Will you go out with me?" Connor/#1 Person on My Death List asked again.

Lea opened her mouth. I shut my eyes. _Please say yes. _Please say no.

"Are you nuts?" she yelled. Ah, that was more like the girl I loved. "What is wrong with you? The minute I break up with the most perfect boy on the planet, you try to make a _pass _at me? Sicko."

Suddenly, I felt a wave of death. _No._

"LEA, WATCH OUT!" Connor yelled. He jumped and pushed her. A tiny black forked tail came into view.

"NICO!" she shrieked.

And then the message fizzled out.

I dived into a shadow, sword ready. Lea needed me, and I needed no more persuasion.

**So, 3 reasons why I haven't updated.**

**1: Believe it or not, my grandpa died two weeks after my grandma. That ****_really _****left me devastated.**

**2: SCHOOL.**

**3: I'm working on my private story.**

**I'm sorry, and I just want to give a shout-out to CaleoForeva for constantly being there almost every week for me and offering me encouragement. Thanks! You helped most out of all my readers, girl.**


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